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> In fact, your average NASA employee doted on astronauts like a star struck little girl. What the crew wanted, the crew got. This is the question I've always
by ArbitraryLimits 15y ago
> In fact, your average NASA employee doted on astronauts like a star struck little girl. What the crew wanted, the crew got.
This is the question I've always had about the Challenger, but never heard addressed: How much of a factor was the crew's opinion considered to be? I strongly suspect that the astronauts themselves exerted informal but real pressure to prefer flying, since it would be their moment in the sun.
- damoncali 15y agoI can't opine on the crew's input to launch decisions because I didn't work in that area. I suspect that they have little say about it. I did work on astronaut EVA training, however. In that case, the astronauts were king. No matter how silly the request, their wishes were catered to - but only in areas of usability, not safety. It turns out it's really difficult to connect wires in space, for example - small things matter a lot. I can remember at least one case where what they wanted was just plain dumb. But we did it anyway. Usually, though, they were pretty good about that sort of stuff.