Dogberry2;390223 Wrote: 
> This has nothing to do with SqueezeBoxes or Slim Devices, but I wanted
> to point out that today, 28 January, is the anniversary of the disaster
> that befell the space shuttle Challenger in 1986. It's been 23 years,
> and so it doesn't get any real attention in the general media anymore,
> but it's very personal to me. On that day, I was an engineer at Kennedy
> Space Center, working in the Launch Control Center. I didn't really know
> any of the astronauts (engineers don't move in the same circles they
> do), but I did get to meet a few of them during my time there, and I
> can tell you this: they were all good people who believed in what they
> were doing, who knew that going into space is a very dangerous
> business, but who truly believed it was worth the risk and the effort.
> Knowing just how real a danger is, and yet facing it and doing your job
> anyway, is what I believe defines true courage, and for their courage
> alone, I believe those seven people who died aboard Challenger that
> cold morning deserve to have their names remembered, even after 23
> years. So I ask you to pause at some time during your day today, and
> just give a brief moment's thought to these brave people:
> 
> Dick Scobee 
> Mike Smith 
> Christa McAuliffe 
> Judy Resnik 
> Ron McNair 
> El Onizuka 
> Greg Jarvis 
> 
> Thanks.

When I think of this unnecessary event, I always think of the song
*-DREAMS-* by -Van Halen-. Many things lead up to this day and
basically every one of them was known about and could have been
prevented. All that lose of life and Billions of dollars worth of
hardware were lost trying to save a few bucks, from making bad
decisions, and not listening to the people that were warning them
before hand.

It’s a sad state of affairs when something so important, costing so
much, and carrying human life is often built by the lowest bidder
because the government is involved.

On a final note, STA-099 Challenger was never meant to go into space.
It was the test unit for stress, heat, and vibration because computers
back in the 70’s couldn’t tell us if building a lighter weight orbiter
(that NASA now wanted) by using a lighter airframe could withstand all
the stresses involved in launching then making a winged full glide
re-entry. After being the test bed for future lighter orbiter, it was
decided to retrofit and upgrade it to OV-099 instead of scraping it.

OV-099 made history with several firsts. The first shuttle space walk,
the first American woman in space, and the first shuttle to launch and
land at night as well as the first to land back where it was launched
from Kennedy Space Center. Tragically it was also the first shuttle to
be lost in a disaster that destroyed the shuttle and killed its crew.


-- 
iPhone

*iPhone*   
'Last.FM' (http://www.last.fm/user/mephone)
Media Room:
Transporter, VTL TL-6.5 Signature Pre-Amp, Ayre MX-R Mono's,
Vandersteen Quatro, VeraStarr 6.4SE 6-channel Amp, VCC-5 Reference
Center, four VSM-1 Signatures, Runco RS 900 CineWide AutoScope 2.35:1  


Living Room:
Duet, ADCOM GTP-870HD, Cinepro 3K6SE III Gold, Vandersteen Model 3A
Signature, Two 2Wq subs, VCC-2, Two VSM-1  

Kitchen: Squeezebox BOOM
Bedroom: SB3, GFR-700HD, Thiel 2.3, Second Boom
Home Office: SB3, NAD C370, two VSM-1
Home Gym: SB3, Parasound Vamp v.3, Thiel PowerPoint 1.2
Mobile: SB3, Audioengine A5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=58929

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