STS-27: A Close Call

[SpaceCanada]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/s ... 0327sts27/

"Hoot" was counting his lucky stars after that one!

[gt0163c]

Thanks for posting the link. Very interesting article. And as one who's gone through a lot of CRM (crew resource management) training, I was cringing at more than a few points. Hoot and Mullane were correct that they should have pushed the issue harder with mission control. They blindly trusted the controllers, who were making decisions based on faulty information and not sharing the background and circumstances that led to those conclusions. Fixing that problem (the making judgements based on bad information) could have been fairly easily identified, one controller asking if the astronauts were seeing clear pictures or making a comment that the pictures appeared very grainy and they thought the astronauts were seeing shadows and such. Getting the clear pictures down to the ground would have been more complicated. Dealing with classified information always is. "The Customer" can be difficult to deal with at times. But that could have been worked out if enough of the right people pushed hard enough.

Whether anything could or should have been done had better images reached the ground is a question that can't be adequately answered. We can only wonder if, perhaps, some changes might have been made that would have prevented the Columbia accident. We'll never know and I'm placing blame or anything. But it does make me wonder. And it should be yet another reminder of the real importance of CRM.

[Hotdog]

Awesome article! Thanks for posting!

Hoot has some great stories. Him and John Young are the greatest astronauts ever.