A heavy silence filled the room; beside Thomas in the top tier, the other senior managers sat stupefied. Some buried their heads in their hands. Others began to weep. “It’s a bad day,” murmured the Shuttle Operations Director, Bob Sieck. Like everyone else, George Abbey was poleaxed with shock. And then he thought of the families on the roof. First, he picked up the phone, calling drivers to take the relatives to crew quarters, away from the eyes of the press.
