re: #126 lawhawk

Did a study on the heat shield and O-ring issues (Columbia and Challenger shuttles) when I was in college for a Public Administration course. Each of those incidents can be traced back to privatization of parts of NASA where the corporations that had responsibility to test these items to failure did not (and in the instance of the heat shield on Columbia the company thought it was too expensive to do a whole satellite sweep of the shield to look for damage).

I’ll have to find the book I read for this course at home (very dry read - but I loved it/ hated it).