
Poop and Soda Bottles Threaten Air Force Rocket Program, Investigators Say - QAPereo
http://gazette.com/poop-pop-threaten-air-force-rocket-program-investigators-say/article/1618540
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dustinmoorenet
I worked on AWACS back in the early 2000s and we had an adversarial dynamic
with our QA team. We would see them as 'just getting in the way', but I can
now say, after working as a software developer, that without a strong QA
(backed up by military laws), our planes would be flying with a lot of
'solutions' that would lead to unnecessary deaths.

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Floegipoky
> At SpaceX, investigators say they spotted workers using tools that weren’t
> specified in a manual.

Could you imagine being so micromanaged that you'd literally need the Federal
Government to change a manual to approve a tool you need?

~~~
andykee
Using the wrong wrench almost caused a nuclear catastrophe:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_ex...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion)

It may seem like micromanagement, but small seemingly meaningless deviations
from procedure can add up to big problems, particularly when dealing with
space.

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paulmd
Doesn't sound like the tool in question had any real impact on that accident
(so to speak). I'm guessing if you drop a 3-foot torque wrench through a fuel
tank, it does just as much damage as a 3-foot socket wrench. The fact that
they grabbed the wrong tool was entirely incidental to damaging the missile.

Also, it takes an extremely precise sequence of events to cause a nuclear
detonation. A nearby explosion is not enough to do it, as you can obviously
see here.

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andykee
I'd recommend listening to the This American Life episode
([https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/634/...](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/634/human-error-in-volatile-situations)) where they interview
the two airmen involved.

tldr; The socket didn't properly fit the wrench and they had to manually hold
the socket on the end of the wrench. One man dropped the socket, which fell
through a small gap between the walkway and missile. The torque wrench was
large enough that it would not have slipped through this gap if/when dropped.

~~~
ethbro
And the larger problem is one of knowledge asymmetry.

If you're dealing with technology so complicated that one person cannot
simultaneously design and repair / maintain it, then whoever performs the
latter doesn't possess all the knowledge of the former.

Maybe they used an flammable alloy under certain conditions for engineering
reasons.

Most metal doesn't burn. But do you want repair / maintenance techs making
that assumption?

Multiple by 100,000 parts.

PS: A more realistic example was one of the Skunk Works projects. I forget the
details, but either tools of special metallic composition or wooden tools had
to be used to avoid damaging the flight characteristics of the aircraft.

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russdill
Here's a detailed discussion on the SpaceX side:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/7ll89f/pentagon_wat...](https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/7ll89f/pentagon_watchdog_cites_top_us_space_contractors/)

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pvg
Original source at [http://gazette.com/poop-pop-threaten-air-force-rocket-
progra...](http://gazette.com/poop-pop-threaten-air-force-rocket-program-
investigators-say/article/1618540)

~~~
sctb
Thanks, we've updated the link from [http://taskandpurpose.com/poop-soda-
threaten-air-force-rocke...](http://taskandpurpose.com/poop-soda-threaten-air-
force-rocket-program-investigators-say/).

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ComputerGuru
Sidebar: I read the title as “(poop and soda) bottles” instead of “poop and
(soda bottles),” and was extremely confused.

I prefer to swap words around in cases like this to make it unambiguous, for
example, “soda bottles and poop...”

~~~
pvg
The original title has the much punchier "poop and pop"

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yipopov
Don't they typically test rockets in outdoors test ranges? And aren't rockets
normally supposed to be able to operate outdoors?

Of course there is going to be dirt, rocks and yes, even fecal matter. What
are they supposed to do, blow their hot exaust gases into a climate-controlled
cleanroom?

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russdill
FOD is a big deal and can cause a lot of damage. Flight areas are very
carefully kept clear of any debris.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_object_damage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_object_damage)

