Earlier quoted context omitted.
RIP Grissom, White and Chaffee. But the loss of their lives also proves a point: that achievement isn't a function of intelligence but of many more factors like people willing to risk and to give their lives to make something important happen in the world. Loss itself drives innovation and resolve. For evidence, look to Gene Kranz: https://wdhb.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Kranz-Dictum.pdf
In that case, the decision to launch was taken not by the astronauts risking their lives, but by NASA management, against the recommendation of Morton Thiokol's engineers. This was not simply an unfortunate "accident", but an entirely preventable gamble. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Commission_Report#Flawe... > Loss itself drives innovation and resolve True, but did NASA in 1986 really need to learn this less…
They knew they were taking some gambles to try to catch up in the Space Race. The urgency that justified those gambles was the Cold War.
People have a social tendency to become complacent about catastrophic risks when there hasn't been a catastrophe recently. There's a natural pressure to "stay chill" when the people around you have decided to do so. Speaking out about risk is scary unless there's a culture of people encouraging other to speak out and taking the risks seriously because they all remember how bad things can be if they don't.
Someone actually has to stand up and say "if something is wrong I really actually want to and need to know." And the people hearing that message have to believe it, because usually it is said in a way that it is not believed.