[mcdillon]

"When he was pressed by NASA the night before the liftoff to sign a written recommendation approving the launch, he refused, and later argued late into the night for a launch cancellation. When McDonald later disclosed the secret debate to accident investigators, he was isolated and his career destroyed."

This is quite simply astonishing; everything I have ever learned in my engineering classes said to do what McDonald did and look what happened to him.

[johngalt]

Having integrity would be easy if you never had to fight and the results always benefitted you. Life is not a fair thing.

Engineers place a lot of emphasis on having the right answer and almost no emphasis on ensuring their influence. It doesn't matter how right you are if nobody will follow your direction.

[ScottBurson]

Yes, this to me is the most disturbing aspect of the story. It's one thing that the mistake was made in the first place; no one could be completely sure what would happen. But to then ostracize the people who warned of the possible catastrophe -- that's a corrupt culture.

[joering2]

may be slight offtopic, but this kind of news touches me. It shouldnt since NASA is a government agency and we all know how bureaucratic it can get, but for some reason NASA always stand to me as a well behave agency with strong morale. This is an exception from all other government entities. But this news proves my feeling were wrong.

[feralchimp]

What's the statute of limitations on negligent homicide?