
Challenger Engineer Who Warned of Shuttle Disaster Dies - molecule
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/21/470870426/challenger-engineer-who-warned-of-shuttle-disaster-dies
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cushychicken
It bums me out a little that there's not more HN hubbub over this. Andy Grove
was a great businessman, but Bob Ebeling was a great engineer. Maybe just not
in the ways that HN loves to celebrate.

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abdulhaq
A handful of clever people end up in the right place at the right time, make
billions, and get praised on news aggregator sites. Millions of others lead
good lives full of moral bravery, and will rarely get a mention by anyone,
anywhere. HN is not the barometer of goodness in any sense.

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legitster
> "I think that was one of the mistakes that God made," Ebeling says softly.
> "He shouldn't have picked me for the job. But next time I talk to him, I'm
> gonna ask him, 'Why me? You picked a loser.' "

This hits me so hard every time I read it. Sometimes in this cruel world, we
are given one of the few real good guys. And we waste them.

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scottshea
I try to keep Bob Elbing in mind when I ask if I should say something or not.
Thankfully none of my work has ever had a single life, much less 7, depending
on what I do. Still, I try to do the right thing and speak up.

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Daneel_
We should all strive to be a little more like Bob Ebling. I greatly respect
and admire his dedication to the safety of those on board the Challenger, and
it makes me proud to be an engineer. The sad passing of Mr Ebling deserves far
more coverage, and his efforts deserve more recognition. I'm glad he had
closure in the final few weeks of his life.

~~~
Foy
Ebeling...

~~~
Daneel_
Oops.. I blame a lack of coffee this morning.

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jernfrost
Such a heartbreaking story. I find it unreasonable how politicians sometimes
advocate for ethical oversight of science with the assumption that scientists
and engineers aren't ethical or moral people, just robots solving equations.

But we saw the same with the atomic bomb. It was mainly scientists who stood
up for the morally right. It is often politicians and management who do the
ethically questionable choices.

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mchahn
> "He said, 'The Challenger's going to blow up. Everyone's going to die,' "
> Serna recalls. "And he was beating his fist on the dashboard. He was
> frantic."

That is a bit over the top but if true, then amazing. How many engineers can
predict something so detailed.

~~~
taneq
If there's critical a weak point in the design that they're well aware of,
that's known to be triggered by certain conditions, and those conditions are
in force, then I'd say quite a few.

It takes a huge amount of guts, though, to try and pull the plug on something
like a shuttle launch over something as innocuous-sounding as some gaskets. No
matter how certain he was that it would cause a disaster, the non-technical
brass must have just thought "eh it's a gasket, I had a leaky gasket in my car
once, we can handle a few drops of oil."

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czep
What bums me out is the Thiokol executives who really were responsible for
this national tragedy, did they ever feel any remorse? Did they repay their
debts? Did they even acknowledge that they royally fucked up? No, they
collected millions and sipped their brandy.

~~~
bpodgursky
> Ebeling helped assemble the data that demonstrated the risk. Boisjoly argued
> for a launch delay. At first, the Thiokol executives agreed and said they
> wouldn't approve the launch.

> "My God, Thiokol," responded Lawrence Mulloy of NASA's Marshall Spaceflight
> Center. "When do you want me to launch? Next April?"

> Despite hours of argument and reams of data, the Thiokol executives
> relented. McDonald says the data were absolutely clear, but politics and
> pressure interfered.

I'd put it more on NASA, if that is accurate. Not entirely, but more.

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mastazi
> "It was as if he got permission from the world," says his daughter Leslie
> Ebeling Serna. "He was able to let that part of his life go."

Rest in Peace.

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atonse
I hope he is able to rest in peace after the outpouring of support and letters
he got, after the story initially ran.

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davidf18
Richard Feynman was on the Challenger accident review committee. He wrote
about the experience including interviewing the top 4 rocket engineers at the
end of his book, '"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further
Adventures of a Curious Character'

I don't follow why Ebeling blamed himself since it appears he did everything a
human being could do to stop the launch, but was overruled by management.

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xivzgrev
I'm really happy he got the closure he needed before he passed.

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tremon
Is it so hard to include the name of the deceased in the link title?

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nbevans
Managers that don't listen to their own engineers... pretty sure there is a
wise soundbite in there somewhere ;)

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kkitay
Rest in peace Bob.

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krsree
They should name something (like next space craft) in his honor. RIP

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Not a spacecraft. Every mission control room should have a big red stop button
called the Ebeling button. Anyone at any time can hit that button with no
repercussions.

~~~
Rooster61
In a way, there is. The Challenger disaster drastically changed how
information is propagated up and down during a launch, including how small an
issue can be before a launch is scrubbed. I guarantee you there is no launch
where Challenger doesn't run through the mind of every person sitting over the
launch in Houston.

