T

he Columbia wreck once again points out the need to "fix" this agency before it simply self-destructs due to political meddling. First Challenger goes down because "suits" decide to ignore literally screaming engineers and "light that candle and ... Go for Throttle Up".

So, after a couple years the problem is fixed ... right? Sure.

Now the news is that the big tank's insulation foam was "reworked" chemically so as to be more environmentally friendly (politically correct). This caused the foam to be less stable (said to be 10 times less stable).

For those wondering why the tank needs insulation ...
Without insulation one could only keep hydrogen and oxygen liquid at room temperature by high pressure. But such pressures require an extremely heavy metal tank which in turn would make the shuttle too heavy to launch. So the volatile liquids are kept liquid by freezing instead and that requires a lot of insulating foam which is weaker but a lot lighter.

• Doesn't have any appreciable impact on the environment
• It's components are often not customizable to EPA specs
• The entire enterprise is too risky to mess around with without good cause
• The matters of pure research outweigh all other considerations

Let's start a dead pool. Which one will be next to go?

• Columbia
• Atlantis
• Challenger
• Discovery
• Endeavor

I think someone or something should come to the A.D.E. of the remaining shuttles or there won't be any space program left. Shall we C2 it? Come to think of it ... maybe that's the conscious goal here ... crash them all then no one will look up in the sky and everyone will be restricted to gazing down at the Lilliputian politicos.

What is to be done?

Put the engineers in charge ... period.

How?

Same method I developed to choose any official in my Proper Government pages. They (engineers only) vote each other to the top and that guy is the DLM

The launch master is the one who decides ... go or nogo. His authority is final. His judgement can be overridden only by the President of the United States ... and ...

this is important ...

the president must override in the presence of news cameras. No backing out here. No way to shift the blame if anything goes wrong. It's all up front. And maybe he might have to do that one day if the need for a mission is greater than any possible risk. But he has to take all the responsibility.

I am getting really sick of suits imposing their judgment on the men in the trenches because they are supposedly higher up and therefore able to see further. Bullshit. They are myopic. In fact most of them are flat out blind. They should be given a walking stick ... not authority. It would be a different matter if they had great experience in the trenches prior to taking a top job ... but that is not the case here. They are bean counters. They should be restricted to counting their beans.