Courage

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He was not silenced.

He was overruled by people less dedicated to the truth of an engineering matter than him and his colleagues.

It is wonderful that he was finally able to accept that a political decision to ignore his expertise was not his fault.
 
Had not seen that he had died but I did hear the two earlier stories this year with him
 
Another instance where politics got in the way of factual evidence. Those who made the decision to "Go for launch" lost track of the lives aboard. Yes it costs money to abort and reschedule. But it costs more to make another shuttle, and to train more astronauts. I truly believe their pride got in the way of their judgment. I hope not to make similar mistakes in my profession.
 
Still have my battered old Law and Ethics text from college with this case study in it. Makes you sick to read it.
 
To this day it surprises me that the folks who made the decision to proceed in the face of the evidence that it would probably end in disaster were not prosecuted for manslaughter or negligent homicide.
 
To this day it surprises me that the folks who made the decision to proceed in the face of the evidence that it would probably end in disaster were not prosecuted for manslaughter or negligent homicide.

I agree.

I recall that the NASA exec simply took an early retirement, so optically NASA did nothing. Morton Thiokol at least took some initial measure by demoting at least one of the Sr. management team who was involved in the override decision. Still hardly feels like justice when it seems like it was such an avoidable situation, at least from this view, after the fact.
 
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