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From: Bobby G Martin <bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com>
Date: November 19, 2015 at 11:30:40 AM CST
To: Bobby Martin <bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com>

Shuttle Risks Are Worth It -- Gene Kranz

From an op-ed piece by Eugene Kranz, former NASA flight director (of Apollo 13 fame), in yesterday's Houston Chronicle (paragraphing edited):

During the launching, foam fell off the external tank.   For the risk-averse, the only acceptable thing to do now is retire the shuttle program immediately and wait for the divine arrival of the next generation of spacecraft.   

I am disgusted at the lack of courage and common sense this attitude shows. 

All progress involves risk.  Risk is essential to fuel the economic engine of our nation. 

And risk is essential to renew American's fundamental spirit of discovery so we remain competitive with the rest of the world. 

*  *  *

I understand the tragedy inherent in risk-taking; I witnessed the fire aboard Apollo 1 in 1967 that killed three crew members. It filled us with anger at ourselves and with the resolve to make it right. After the fire we didn't quit; we redesigned the Apollo command module. During the Apollo missions that followed, we were never perfect. But we were determined and competent and that made these missions successful.

I see the same combination of anger, resolve and determination in the space shuttle program today. These people are professionals who understand risk, how to reduce it and how to make that which remains acceptable.

Most important, the current mission has demonstrated the maturity of the shuttle team that endured the Columbia disaster and had the guts to persevere. This is the most important aspect of the recovery from the Columbia accident, and is a credit to the great team NASA now has in place, headed by its administrator, Michael Griffin.

There are many nations that wish to surpass us in space. Does the "quit now" crowd really believe that abandoning the shuttle and the International Space Station is the way to keep America the pre-eminent space-faring nation? Do they really believe that a new spacecraft will come without an engineering challenge or a human toll?

The path the naysayers suggest is so out of touch with the American character of perseverance, hard work and discovery that they don't even realize the danger in which they are putting future astronauts — not to mention our nation.

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