Sublime

Dear Dr. Fletcher: We are greatly disturbed by testimony of May 2 to the Rogers Commission that strongly suggests that Morton Thiokol, Inc., and at least one NASA official, have attempted to control the flow of information to the Commission through acts of intimidation and punishment. In evaluating that testimony, it appears that a Morton Thiokol e

Feynman credits my testimony for enabling the Presidential Commission to find the real cause of the Challenger accident:

Then something happened that was completely unexpected. An engineer from the Thiokol Company, a Mr. MacDonald, wanted to tell us something. He had come to our meeting on his own, uninvited. Mr. MacDonald reported that the Thiokol engineers had come to the conclusions that low temperatures had something to do with the seals problem, and they were ve

On the screen, I saw President Reagan shake hands with several members of the Presidential Commission, congratulating them for a job well done. The newscaster reported that the Commission had concluded that the Challenger accident had been caused by the failure of an O-ring in a joint of the right solid rocket booster, which had been precipitated b

He asked me several questions about my involvement in the circumstances surrounding the decision to launch the Challenger, and he was interested in my response to the conclusions from the Presidential Commission's report relative to the cause of the accident, and the flawed decision to launch the Challenger in such cold weather. He also informed me

These actions reflect my concern about how the treatment of certain Morton Thiokol employees, particularly Mr. McDonald and Mr. Boisjoly, will adversely affect the future of the Space Shuttle program. Any failure to maintain an atmosphere of support for objective scientific inquiry and honest criticism will decrease safety at a time when improved s

committee, and I assume in the legal process that may follow, you are going to suggest to a court that you were engaged in a conversation and a decision to launch a $4 billion vehicle with seven lives aboard, and although one of your engineers was on the site and on the phone with you, you never really questioned his contrary judgment. You did so w