Challenger Disaster

Physicist Feynman said that NASA exaggerated the reliability of the space shuttle “to the point of fantasy” and that the managers were “selling something” when they went before Congress with ambitious projections. He added: “The guys who know something about what the world is really like are at the lowest levels . . . and the ones that know how to influence other people by telling how the world would be nice, they are at the top.” The result was the Challenger explosion and tragic loss of seven lives. Feynman said that rather than chasing impossible goals, the space program should determine what is realistic and then try to achieve one notch above it. I agree with this approach and with the basic NASA mission.

However, reflecting on his analysis brings to mind another “space” program, the Strategic Defense Initiative, President Reagan’s fantasy to make nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete”. This is virtually an impossible goal being sold by physicist Edward Teller, Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson and a few mostly self-interested proponents; whereas, the guys who know something are united in opposition and include more than 6,500 Nobel Prize-winners and other knowledgeable scientists who say that it cannot work.

“Star Wars” is a destabilizing and excessively costly endeavor. It is an acceleration of the arms race that must not proceed to testing and deployment. If pursued, the resulting worst-case scenario would be a nuclear holocaust involving the lives of hundreds of millions or at “best” less real security and lost economic opportunities.

NORMAN A. GOTTLIEB

Sepulveda