The politics of the SRBs are absolutely disgusting and date back to the original choice of Thiokol in the 1970s. Thiokol won the contract for the space shuttle

The politics of the SRBs are absolutely disgusting and date back to the original choice of Thiokol in the 1970s. Thiokol won the contract for the space shuttle SRBs because James Fletcher was the head of NASA. Fletcher had previously been president of the University of Utah. He thus had connections with Thiokol, and also with Senator Jake Garn (R-Utah). There were four bids for the SRBs. NASA engineers selected the Aerojet bid, which came in at the lowest price. Fletcher overruled his own engineers and picked Thiokol. Because Thiokol was located in landlocked Utah, their SRBs would have to be delivered in pieces and reassembled at the Cape, using O-rings to seal the joints. The failure of the O-rings in cold weather then killed the 7 astronauts on Challenger. To add insult to injury, Aerojet had been planning to manufacture the SRBs in Florida, in one piece, shipping them to the Cape by barge. Hence, no assembly, no O-rings, and no dead astronauts. To add further insult to injury, James Fletcher was reappointed NASA Administrator after the Challenger explosion! Jake Garn became one of only two Congressmen to fly into space.