AMA about NASA in the mid 80s

[mikesouth]

Since some losers (Donny Long and Sean Tompkins) have called that time into my life in question I thought it would actually be fun to do an AMA because I DO get asked about it a lot so if there is anything you ever wanted to know ask away.

A few thngs to bear in mind, At Launch Complex 39 at KSC there were over 15,000 people working there at the time, the odds that I knew any particular one of them (or that they knew me) are very low/ Everyone there worked for NASA even though the vast majority, myself included worked for subcontractors, like MacDoug, Lockheed, Teledyne Brown, Boeing and about a few hundred others. I did have a high level security clearance but in the scheme of those clearances the highest levels at KSC/Canaveral wouldn't get you into the parking lot in McClean or Fairfax. Everything about the space program was paid for with taxpayer dollars and was purposefully not classified, the exception and the reason for clearances was Dept of Defense missions, payloads and info on launch times etc.

So ask away should be fun, if all you want to do is throw shit there are plenty other threads for that....

[Phoenix]

Did you meet any aliens?

[mikesouth]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Did you meet any aliens?

LOL no and i dont buy into the area 51 captured alien moved to Wright Pat either....

[MiamiBoyz]

[crockett]

My grandfather worked there on the generator repair crew. Had access to pretty much anywhere on the cape. One of my uncle's worked at the NASA press room. My step father was on the Shuttle recovery team and also the launch prep team. (helped suit up the astronauts on the prep team, and was later on the recovery team for remote landings)

My aunt worked for various contractors but most recently space x, but she just retired. Needless to say I saw a lot of the early shuttle launches when I was a kid on the cape. Like everyone up to something like STS 22 or somewhere around there.

I was born in Melbourne, so I grew up on the space coast. I actually watched the Challenger blow up from the window of my history class.

[mikesouth]

Originally Posted by crockett

My grandfather worked there on the generator repair crew. Had access to pretty much anywhere on the cape. One of my uncle's worked at the NASA press room. My step father was on the Shuttle recovery team and also the launch prep team. (helped suit up the astronauts on the prep team, and was later on the recovery team for remote landings)

My aunt worked for various contractors but most recently space x, but she just retired. Needless to say I saw a lot of the early shuttle launches when I was a kid on the cape. Like everyone up to something like STS 22 or somewhere around there.

I was born in Melbourne, so I grew up on the space coast. I actually watched the Challenger blow up from the window of my history class.

Actually a family legacy in the space program was pretty common lots of people I knew had brothers and father and mothers who were there for the Apollo program or whatever I lived on Cocoa beach just north of Patrick AFB.

For STS51L (Challenger) I was still in Huntsville at Marshal SFC and Redstone Arsenal when it went bad it opened a door of opportunity to replace a lot of old systems and thats basically what moved me there.

It was the most fun place I ever worked hands down, engineering on a very impressive scale. Along with your family I had to have a lot of "training" as well because I had access to The launch Control center, The Pads, The VAB all four firing rooms (3&4 were DOD and required the clearance) Flight Crew Training and the scariest one to me, the Hypergol Facility.

Fun times but so easy to burn out...

[PR_Glen]

It was fully funded by the people back in those days, and still is despite a whole lot of nothing going on today. I'm curious what your opinion is of the private sector starting their own space programs now? Do you think having an actual business model and being run as a business would be beneficial or a hindrance? I'm sure it would help cut down a lot of waste, but would that in turn put lives in danger because of this?

[plaster]

What caused that space shuttle to blow up, who was at fault, and what was the teachers name that was in it?

[mikesouth]

Originally Posted by PR_Glen

It was fully funded by the people back in those days, and still is despite a whole lot of nothing going on today. I'm curious what your opinion is of the private sector starting their own space programs now? Do you think having an actual business model and being run as a business would be beneficial or a hindrance? I'm sure it would help cut down a lot of waste, but would that in turn put lives in danger because of this?

The thing is space exploration is massively expensive, even for a billionaire like Richard Branson, so its one of those things that is best funded by taxpayers but the technology that came out of that funding went into the public domain and had enriched the lives of everyone on earth pretty much but the overall question is was/is it worth the expense. Private space exploration is a good thing no doubt but it does raise some ethical issues particularly if it is in any way subsidized by taxpayers, for example we know there are meteors out there that are very large deposits of gold, should one of those become mineable who get the profits and of course who bears the costs.

In the long run our survival as a species is dependent on us being able to move off of this planet there is probably no such thing as starting too soon

in terms of placing satellites in orbit and other such small picture stuff that private companies are doing now I think that is inevitable and probably a good thing but it does create a cross dependence between government and industry I mean in particular classified things like DOD sats, I dont think its a good thing when a company has something it can hold over the head of our government in exchange for favorable laws, so I dont like the idea of the whole thing falling into corporate hands.

[mikesouth]

Originally Posted by plaster

What caused that space shuttle to blow up, who was at fault, and what was the teachers name that was in it?

which one? you know all of that is easily google-able assuming, because of the teacher reference you mean Challenger (STS51L) ....

the bigger question is was Christa McAuliffe (the teacher killed in STS51L) lulled in by a false sense of security, shuttle launches had become so routine that the launch of that mission was only carried live by CNN. Sitting on top of enough rocket fuel to blast hundreds of tons into orbit is inherently dangerous and no place for a civilian teacher who really did not understand the risks involved.

Incidentally the crew compartment was intact until it hit the water, most likely they survived the explosion but not the impact with the water.
as for fault you can argue whether it was weather or a faulty o ring or a combo or the fact that the systems being used to launch were antiquated, it doesn't change the fact that it happened and was probably inevitable

[Bladewire]

Originally Posted by mikesouth

which one? you know all of that is easily google-able assuming, because of the teacher reference you mean Challenger (STS51L) ....

the bigger question is was Christa McAuliffe (the teacher killed in STS51L) lulled in by a false sense of security, shuttle launches had become so routine that the launch of that mission was only carried live by CNN. Sitting on top of enough rocket fuel to blast hundreds of tons into orbit is inherently dangerous and no place for a civilian teacher who really did not understand the risks involved.

Incidentally the crew compartment was intact until it hit the water, most likely they survived the explosion but not the impact with the water.
as for fault you can argue whether it was weather or a faulty o ring or a combo or the fact that the systems being used to launch were antiquated, it doesn't change the fact that it happened and was probably inevitable

I'll never forget watching that live in junior high earth science class. Girls started crying, awkward.