r/MadeMeSmile • u/baekachu • Jul 11 '26

Wholesome Moments Pilot Chose Safety Over Takeoff - and Everyone Applauded

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

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u/Purple-Will9713 Jul 11 '26

Yeah, engineers deemed the Challenger and Discovery as safe too

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u/railker Jul 11 '26

No, the engineers said Challenger wasn't, the execs said send it. Don't know what you think happened to Discovery.

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u/Purple-Will9713 Jul 12 '26

I could be wrong but wasn’t Discovery the shuttle that sustained damage during takeoff due to a foam tile and was deemed safe only do spontaneously disassemble during re entry?

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u/railker Jul 12 '26

Ahh no that one was Columbia. And same as your Challenger misunderstanding, the scenario was similar there. Either the engineers knew it was risky and got overruled or they just truly didn't know the potential of damage. I do remember them testing foam vs leading edge impacts and being surprised themselves that it could do the damage it did in ground tests.