As we remember, so shall Hollywood

[drwex]

Each year I try to mark the anniversary of the Challenger disaster.

This year we have a preview for an unsubtly named movie - https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/the-challenger-disaster/ - that appears to center on the Thiokol engineers and NASA personnel who made the decision to launch the fatal flight. There's a clear line about "testifying before a Presidential Commission" and a lot of noise about "coverup". I'm not sure that's the right word, but I'll most likely see the movie.

Comments

[reedrover]

... says the guy with the Feynman icon.

[drwex]

Quite deliberately. I remember watching the hearing and having the heartbreaking sensation that nothing was going to come of it and these weasels were going to get away with it. Then he pulled his little stunt and Everything Changed.

I'd never heard of him (to my recollection) before that commission and after that he became one of my heroes.

[donnad]

That will be a very difficult film to watch, but I think we will. Wow, I didn't even know about it until you linked to it here.

[donnad]

We watched it last night, We were able to get it through our On Demand service.
It was a bit tedious after a while, it's basically 90 minutes of people arguing. I felt bad for those involved, who tried very hard to stop the launch, but had their efforts overrided and then were thrown under the bus after the accident. "Why didn't you try harder?" Gunther, who has read every book he can find about the space program, said he felt it was over dramatized. He believes that it may have happened, but not with the contention they presented in the film.
Here's a link to the person he thinks the film was actually about.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/28/464744781/30-years-after-disaster-challenger-engineer-still-blames-himself

[rmd]

That poor man. I remember when that article came out there was a surge of people going "dude, it's not your fault", but I have no idea if it made any impact on him.

Did the movie mention the part where Sally Ride leaked the o-ring info to Feynman? (A fact he kept secret until after her death)

[donnad]

They mentioned a "leak of information to the press," but did not say who it was, other than making accusation about who they suspected amongst their engineering team might have been "the leak".

[rmd]

Not to the press. And actually - I misremembered. It wasn't Feynman, it was an Air Forge general who was on the commission.
While walking along, not looking down and not saying a thing, Ride slipped him a NASA document on O-ring rigidity vs temperature. He kept this fact a secret until after she died, and then told the story as part of the Popular Mechanics oral history article. He talked to Feynman about O-rings, and that led to his excellent icewater demo.

[donnad]

Well, it was a dramatization, I'm sure they took liberties.

[rmd]

Oh, I'm quite sure. I just find the history of it all fascinating. [nerd-alert!]