A Challenger Question For You All

[ProfessorGAC]

I watched the "Turning Point" episode yesterday on History about the Challenger disaster.

As i was watching i could feel my blood boiling all over again, because of what i have always suspected to the underlying cause. I'm wondering how many folks here would buy my hypothesis. (See how deftly i avoided Conspiracy Theory?)

I honestly believe, and always will, that the reason why NASA higher-ups, and management from Thiokol were directly pressured by the White House to LAUNCH THAT ROCKET! Somebody in the political office of the WH, made calls to apply said pressure, but of course, on the Q.T.

Why would they care? Because our first Dunce-In-Chief was going to spend a good 20% of the SOTU speech on the "teacher in space" and they were NOT going to have that speech rewritten in the last hours because it was TOO COLD DOWN THERE!

When they cancelled the SOTU after the rocket blew up, it was obvious that they did not have the time to rewrite the whole speech leaving out everything that referenced this "glorious" moment. If they had, the feel-good thread that Ronnie had in the speech was gone and the rest of the speech would have been dryer than dust.

So, i believe that someone who worked in the White House has the blood of seven people on their hands. I hope they dream in anguish every night.

The Professor

[The White Tree]

1. I would say that is plausable and reasonable

It is human nature to "have faith" that the worst is never going to happen and only good things will (our excursion into Iraq being a prime example). So it would seem plausable that this could have happened this way.

Whether your hypothesis is true or not is something that probably could not easily be proven.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I Agree. Not Provable

But, my blood pressure goes up everytime i think about it, but there would never be any other good reason to send up a ROCKET against the advice of the SCIENTISTS! The most logical extrinsic force involved would be political pressure from the highest corridors.
The Professor

[terrya]

3. I think it's plausible...and I think the same might be said....

about the Columbia disaster, as well. Pressure from the White House to launch a shuttle that should never have been sent. But that's just my thinking.

[cookiebird]

4. Several Investigations

indicate that there was no direct pressure from the WH. Now, people in charge of the eventual launch decision could have created their own perception of pressure. The Reagan WH was thoroughly investigated in this question and nothing was found to show any kind of pressure, direct or indirect. Let's remember that the lack of evidence does not support a claim. Dr. Cookiebird

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Several Investigations? Sorry. Don't Buy It

I actually read, back in the day, the official Congressional report of the investigation. There was no research into that possibility. Nothing even mentioned in the report. The entire report centered around the communication issues between Thiokol and NASA management and the most glaring finding was that NASA Upper Mgmt. did not even know about the dispute, so they weren't there to mediate.

I do not accept that any investigation into the WH connection was ever actually done and i believe someone in the WHPO skated on this.
The Professor

[sendero]

7. I always trust...

... politicians to investigate themselves. Not.

[sendero]

6. I thought the same thing..

... at the time, and there were more than one pundit who hypothesized exactly that - the media hadn't rolled over quite yet.

Many think it came from the very top.