Panelist Feynman raps NASA

NASA either intentionally misled Congress and the public or lacked common sense by continuing to launch the shuttle Challenger, says Richard Feynman, a member of the Rogers Commission. The agency ignored rocket-booster problems and exaggerated safety ``to the point of fantasy,'' says the California Institute of Technology theoretical physicist, who won a Nobel Prize in 1965.

The Challenger disaster ``was a final accident of a sequence of things in which there was warning after warning after warning that something was wrong,'' he says, calling the behavior of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a form of Russian roulette.

Dr. Feynman says NASA managers kept insisting that the chance of a catastrophic rocket failure was one in 100,000, even though low-level engineers pegged the odds at roughly one in 100.

In a written report that will be published as an appendix to the commission report released Monday, Feynman said he had two theories as to why NASA officials overestimated safety: ``One is that they actually misled people.'' Such deception was meant ``to ensure the supply of funds.'' Two is that they ``were incredibly lacking in common sense'' and fooled themselves because of ``an almost incredible lack of communication between themselves and their engineers.''

You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.
QR Code to Panelist Feynman raps NASA
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/0612/a1space9.html
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe
CSM logo

Why is Christian Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us