Challenger Disaster

I am an engineer in NASA project management who has worked on the shuttle program since its inception, and in hindsight can appreciate the comments by physicist Richard Feynman in The Times article (June 11). We did deceive ourselves, unaware of the implications of accepting each past success as proof that everything was all right despite the warning signs. And as circumstances showed, it was like playing Russian roulette--taking a chance until inevitably the bullet fired.

There is no question in my mind that NASA can and will learn from that tragedy. It has raised our level of awareness. I agree with Dr. Feynman’s conclusion, that “for a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”

The pressing question in my mind, however, is whether people will extend the tragic lesson to the current danger that threatens billions of lives--our reliance on weapons to resolve conflict. What was the warning sign from Chernobyl? What is the “reality” of “Star Wars?” What are the implications of turning down the Soviet offer of a bilateral nuclear test ban? Was the 1962 Cuban missile crisis an early warning of playing Russian roulette?

Feynman commented with regard to NASA: “The guys who know something about what the world is really like are at the lowest levels of the organizations and the ones that know how to influence other people by telling how the world would be nice, they are at the top. And there seems to be a certain amount of lack of communication.” I see that same situation generally in our society as a whole today. You and I need to become aware, read the warning signs and communicate. In the case of nuclear roulette, there is no second chance.

JACK WEIL

Woodland Hills