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At odds with NASA bureaucracy
Feynman cut through the red tape and figured out what caused the [[Challenger disaster]].
Feynman cut through the red tape and figured out what caused the [[Challenger disaster]].
{{Rquote|right|I took this stuff that I got out of your seal and I put it in ice water, and I discovered that when you put some pressure on it for a while and then undo it, it doesn't stretch back. It stays the same dimension. In other words, for a few seconds at least and more seconds than that, there is no resilience in this particular material when it is at a temperature of 32 degrees.|Richard Feynman|<ref name=NYT_Feynman/>}}
One of the commission's most well-known members was theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. His style of investigating with his own direct methods rather than following the commission schedule put him at odds with Rogers, who once commented, "Feynman is becoming a real pain." During a televised hearing, Feynman famously demonstrated how the O-rings became less resilient and subject to seal failures at ice-cold temperatures by immersing a sample of the material in a glass of ice water.<ref name=NYT_Feynman>{{cite web| url = http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/21/reviews/feynman-obit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |title = Richard Feynman Dead at 69; Leading Theoretical Physicist|accessdate = 2007-01-28|author = Gleick, James|date = 1988-02-17|work = New York Times}}</ref>
Feynman was so critical of flaws in NASA's "safety culture" that he threatened to remove his name from the report unless it included his personal observations on the reliability of the shuttle. He argued that the estimates of reliability offered by [[NASA]] management were wildly unrealistic, differing as much as a thousandfold from the estimates of working engineers. "For a successful technology," he concluded, "reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."<ref>Feynman, Richard P. (1986) [http://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v2appf.htm Appendix F - Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle]</ref>
==Notes==
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==External links==
==External links==