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[i]Ed Cortright was now at the Houston center, working for Max Faget's engineers on understanding all of this. He hadn't bothered making his manners to Bob Gilruth, or even giving us an update on his conclusions. So Bob made the move and invited him up to the ninth floor. We listened to him summarize what he knew. We'd heard it all from Max already, so there were no surprises. The obvious solution was to replace the switch as previously ordered. "I'm recommending that we design and build a new tank," Cortright said, and we were astounded. "Why would you do that?" Gilruth asked. "That tank is perfectly sound," I said. "We've got hundreds of test hours and flight hours on it. A new tank loses us all that experience." "I have my reputation to worry about," Cortright said. "I can't recommend anything less." What he meant was that a simple solution was just too easy. If it didn't look difficult, he didn't look good. We argued, but Cortright wouldn't budge. Vanity overcame his common sense. In the next weeks, Gilruth and I fought all the way through NASA headquarters. The bosses took the political way out and ratified Cortright's recommendation. That new design costs $40 million...[/i]
[i]Panel Mass ... The actual weight of a full scale panel is 98.8 lbs.[/i]
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