Yes, kept up with every bit. My dad, class of 65 was an engineer at NASA beginning the day after his last final until 1997. Still haunts us. Sorry, if I derailed wasn't intentional

Naw,
If anyone derailed it, it was me,

Thanks for sharing, it's a fascinating piece of history.

I thought this was very good.

Just finished it. Thought it was really well done and great timing as many of those interviewed won't be with us much longer. The pre-flight video and background of all seven astronauts made it much more personal.

I was in high school when it happened. I knew the O-rings were to blame, and I knew they chose to launch under pressure despite engineering warnings, but that's it. I learned a lot.

The only part that struck me as odd was the mention that Reagan told Rogers not to "embarrass NASA" and that Rogers was forced to after evidence came to light. It also claimed that Feynman wouldn't have been appointed to the commission if they had known he didn't respect authority. A quick Googling revealed nothing about that part. Is it true, or just an attempt to add drama?

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But June Scobee in particular helped make the emotion pretty powerful once they got to the accident

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I thought she was very impressive so I looked her up. The documentary only introduces her as Scobee's wife, but she has a Phd and was founding chair of the Challenger Center.

Finally got around to watching this. June Scobee really made the series. As wife of a fighter/test pilot, the idea of her husband dying in flight had been real for a long time.

I found the details of Thiokol being forced by Marshall SFC to fly was really good. Being a lead engineer on a large aerospace program, I have been in meetings where senior management was pushing me hard for things. I'd really like to hear more details of what data lead to the GO decision.

wbt5845 said:

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Finally got around to watching this. June Scobee really made the series. As wife of a fighter/test pilot, the idea of her husband dying in flight had been real for a long time.

I found the details of Thiokol being forced by Marshall SFC to fly was really good. Being a lead engineer on a large aerospace program, I have been in meetings where senior management was pushing me hard for things. I'd really like to hear more details of what data lead to the GO decision.

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I would highly recommend Allan McDonald's book Truth, Lies, and o-rings. It's very detailed and the only book written by someone directly involved. The part about the teleconference was decently done but there were a lot of details lacking in the docuseries that were covered in the book or other documentaries (there's lots of them on YouTube). I'm surprised Roger Boisjoly wasn't even mentioned by name given that he might've been the the most central figure involved at MTI regarding the O ring problem (he passed away in 2012). Really what it all boils down to is "the customer is always right". MTI was nervous about losing their biggest customer as NASA was looking into second sourcing the SRBs. Sadly, as McDonald's book concluded, while NASA may have looked into second sourcing, there was no other contractor that could've made the SRBs at as competitive of a price as MTI and probably not any time soon as MTI had vastly better facilities dedicated to building solid rockets than anyone else at the time. And second source contractor would have a lot of catch up to do. McDonald himself had been the one at MTI that had researched competitors as a possible second source. I wonder if he'd been in Utah instead of Florida that night if things might've gone differently as he had more more clout that the non manger engineers. Since he was in Florida, he wasn't privy to the 5 minute caucus that turned into a half hour where MTI management overruled the staff level engineers. McDonald even prophetically told Mulloy while they waited for the approval fax something along the lines, "I think this is a big mistake and if this thing blows up tomorrow I sure wouldn't want to be the one that would have to stand before a board of inquiry and explain this launch rationale."