Equilibrium Quotes

“In his autobiography, Riding Rockets, NASA astronaut Mike Mullane, who flew on STS-27 and STS-36, made the point that “NASA needed the illusion of normalcy. They needed the public to think we were airline pilots on scheduled flights. But we knew better. Every flight was an engineering experiment with people inside… The shuttle was a test vehicle. The only reason we called it an operational vehicle was because that made the program look mature and safe. But the truth was, we were still test flying an experimental rocket ship every single time we lit those engines.” From Mike Mullane’s perspective, it wasn’t a surprise that NASA lost two orbiters; the real surprise was that they didn’t lose more. As an example, the shuttle lost tiles on every flight, meaning every flight could have ended like Columbia burning up on reentry! There was an illusion of mastery, an illusion of control that lured the public to sleep.”
― Peter Cawdron, Equilibrium