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The shuttle o-rings were working exactly as designed. The shuttle management was full of bureaucracy that decided it needed to 'move fast and break things' and

The shuttle o-rings were working exactly as designed. The shuttle management was full of bureaucracy that decided it needed to 'move fast and break things' and ignore known cold weather launch condition issues like failure of o-rings. The o-ring engineers/designers objected to the launch and refused to sign off on it, but they were overruled by management and ignored.

UIUC_06 4y ago
There is a presentation by Edward Tufte claiming that PowerPoint caused, in part, the shuttle disaster. Hang on... The claim is that PP's economy of words meant that the presentations to each level of management got more and more dismissive of the danger, the higher up the chain they went. Euphemisms got more and more bland, until the top people thought "screw it, we're launching." Note that I'm not endorsing that theory, since I haven't seen the slide decks that got used. It's disputed here: https://eagereyes.org/criticism/tufte-and-the-truth-about-the-challenger https://eagereyes.org/criticism/tufte-and-the-truth-about-th... I find that dismissal to be completely missing the point. Tufte wasn't arguing physics, he was arguing that PP euphemisms caused top execs to minimize the danger.
- philipkglass 4y ago
  There is a presentation by Edward Tufte claiming that PowerPoint caused, in part, the shuttle disaster. I can imagine him blaming a presentation style, but PowerPoint? The Challenger exploded in 1986: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disas... PowerPoint didn't exist until 1987: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerPoint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerPoint
  - qbasic_forever 4y ago
    Powerpoint is such an enormous force it has collapsed in on itself into a blackhole that tunneled through space and time. Powerpoint is slowly leaking into the past and destroying our history before our very eyes.
    - gscott 4y ago
      I have some PowerPoint templates to sell to you for the low price of $100.00
  - Jtsummers 4y ago
    https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1&topic=Ask+E%2eT%2e https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=... Tufte decrying PowerPoint in relation to a shuttle disaster was about about the Columbia, not the Challenger.
highwaylights 4y ago
Facts. Why this keeps getting swept under the rug successfully when there’s first hand witness statements to back this up is beyond me.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  This isn't getting swept under the rug successfully, everybody who spends a few hours researching shuttle knows this. However having o-rings that are this fragile was a large part of the problem with shuttle. It was fragile, to get it to be able to launch at all an increasing amount of issues had to be ignored. To many failure points, leading to far to many close calls. What is actually surprising is that only 2 shuttles failed.
wumpus 4y ago
> 'move fast and break things' Wow, they invented that phrase? I had no idea.
MichaelCollins 4y ago
> The shuttle o-rings were working exactly as designed. This isn't true actually. From the very start the o-rings were not functioning as designed even in warm weather. They realized even before the first shuttle launch that the o-rings weren't compressed properly and were being partially extruded through the SRB joints when fired, and allowed some gas to escape out the joint around the o-ring, causing partial o-ring erosion. NASA decided not to worry about it and continue with the design. Turns out this problem was even worse during cold weather... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster#O-ring_concerns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disas...

UIUC_06 4y ago

There is a presentation by Edward Tufte claiming that PowerPoint caused, in part, the shuttle disaster. Hang on... The claim is that PP's economy of words meant that the presentations to each level of management got more and more dismissive of the danger, the higher up the chain they went. Euphemisms got more and more bland, until the top people thought "screw it, we're launching." Note that I'm not endorsing that theory, since I haven't seen the slide decks that got used. It's disputed here: https://eagereyes.org/criticism/tufte-and-the-truth-about-the-challenger https://eagereyes.org/criticism/tufte-and-the-truth-about-th... I find that dismissal to be completely missing the point. Tufte wasn't arguing physics, he was arguing that PP euphemisms caused top execs to minimize the danger.

philipkglass 4y ago
There is a presentation by Edward Tufte claiming that PowerPoint caused, in part, the shuttle disaster. I can imagine him blaming a presentation style, but PowerPoint? The Challenger exploded in 1986: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disas... PowerPoint didn't exist until 1987: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerPoint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerPoint
- qbasic_forever 4y ago
  Powerpoint is such an enormous force it has collapsed in on itself into a blackhole that tunneled through space and time. Powerpoint is slowly leaking into the past and destroying our history before our very eyes.
  - gscott 4y ago
    I have some PowerPoint templates to sell to you for the low price of $100.00
- Jtsummers 4y ago
  https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1&topic=Ask+E%2eT%2e https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=... Tufte decrying PowerPoint in relation to a shuttle disaster was about about the Columbia, not the Challenger.

highwaylights 4y ago

Facts. Why this keeps getting swept under the rug successfully when there’s first hand witness statements to back this up is beyond me.

panick21_ 4y ago
This isn't getting swept under the rug successfully, everybody who spends a few hours researching shuttle knows this. However having o-rings that are this fragile was a large part of the problem with shuttle. It was fragile, to get it to be able to launch at all an increasing amount of issues had to be ignored. To many failure points, leading to far to many close calls. What is actually surprising is that only 2 shuttles failed.

wumpus 4y ago

> 'move fast and break things' Wow, they invented that phrase? I had no idea.

MichaelCollins 4y ago

> The shuttle o-rings were working exactly as designed. This isn't true actually. From the very start the o-rings were not functioning as designed even in warm weather. They realized even before the first shuttle launch that the o-rings weren't compressed properly and were being partially extruded through the SRB joints when fired, and allowed some gas to escape out the joint around the o-ring, causing partial o-ring erosion. NASA decided not to worry about it and continue with the design. Turns out this problem was even worse during cold weather... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster#O-ring_concerns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disas...