Thought for the day...

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,491
No more than Machu Picchu built on top of the Andes Mountains. My son made the trek up there with Chilean guides and llama pack animals. They introduced him to chewing coca leaves in the "traditional" manner on their multiday hike up the Andes.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,333

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,333
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/07/9745...ed-to-approve-challenger-launch-exposed-cover
On Jan. 27, 1986, Allan McDonald stood on the cusp of history.

McDonald directed the booster rocket project at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol. He was responsible for the two massive rockets, filled with explosive fuel, which lifted space shuttles skyward. He was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch of the Challenger "...to approve or disapprove a launch if something came up," he told me in 2016, 30 years after Challenger exploded.

His job was to sign and submit an official form. Sign the form, he believed, and he'd risk the lives of the seven astronauts set to board the spacecraft the next morning. Refuse to sign, and he'd risk his job, his career, and the good life he'd built for his wife and four children.

"And I made the smartest decision I ever made in my lifetime," McDonald told me. "I refused to sign it. I just thought we were taking risks we shouldn't be taking."
 
Top