Not all of NASA’s claims were true, and the steering committee emphatically countered the agency’s inaccuracies. Perhaps to woo the opposition, NASA invited Blackburn to watch a launch of the space shuttle in Florida from a VIP viewing site. But since no children under sixteen were allowed, she couldn’t bring her twelve-year-old son, who would have adored seeing the launch from close up as much as she would have. If she felt uncertain about whether conscience barred her from accepting the offer, her son’s anticipated reaction settled the issue: “Ben would have killed me if I went without him,
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