If “safety before everything” was impossible, what then was the guiding principle for deciding to abort a mission? The canon was voluminous, but the unifying tenet was based on the ability to tolerate one more major failure. As Lunney explained it: “You will continue [flying] only if the next thing that happens to you—and it’s the worst thing you can think of to couple with the problems you already have—is still survivable.” If you thought in those terms, the flight controllers pointed out, a great many of the more specific rules fell into place. “Sounds obvious as hell,” Lunney added, “but it
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