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Author
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Topic: John Young: Flight readiness review 'gadfly'
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Paul78zephyr
Member Posts: 675
From: Hudson, MA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 09-08-2016 11:53 AM
  
It was a bit disturbing to me to read about how John Young was regarded later in the shuttle program (c. 2003). I refer to Wayne Hale's take here (specifically the eighth paragraph): About the only person not intimidated by the proceedings, was John Young, bless his heart. He would stand up, ask questions in a clear and loud voice, and expect and answer. Even if his point was well taken, the folks at the table never seemed sure of how to handle it. Sometimes an action was assigned “due at the L-2 day briefing” or some such. But John had come to be considered a gadfly with a few topics that were his personal interests. He had no standing and no organization, and worse he sometimes asked goofy questions. Other than the comic relief of watching the head table squirm when John came to the microphone, little came of it. I would consider being regarded as a "gadfly" quite a humiliation. Does anyone know if this is how he was really looked at at that time? gad·fly
/ˈɡadˌflī/
nounan annoying person, especially one who provokes others into action by criticism. |
JGeenty
Member Posts: 20
From: Meopham, Kent, United Kingdom
Registered: Apr 2013
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posted 09-08-2016 03:43 PM
I've no idea how Captain Young was regarded the time, and I'm sure the perspective changed from person to person.But speaking as a manager within a large(ish) corporate organisation... the pressures to deliver and hit schedules can be huge. In that environment people who question too much or who sit outside your immediate team and goal can be considered an irritant. However, in calmer moments I think most people would accept that those voices raising the questions help keep everyone honest. They can be considered "irritating" and be spot on at the same time. I've certainly complained about someone "not knowing what they're talking about" or sighed "not this again" but then gone and double checked my work and thought process and found errors/new ideas. In a stressed moment you might consider such a person a gadfly, but equally when you sit down and think about the impact, it will keep you honest in other areas too. Was it annoying to stressed managers to have a legend of the program asking questions all the time? I'd guess it was. Was Young always hitting the right point? Probably not, he's human. Did it keep people focused and honest? Almost certainly. And we'll never know if his questions sorted other issues before they happened. Being a gadfly can be a good thing. But obviously I can't speak for anyone in NASA at the time. |
Paul78zephyr
Member Posts: 675
From: Hudson, MA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 09-08-2016 05:46 PM
Thank you for that input. I would tend to agree with all the points you made. It just astonished me that a man who was a Gemini and Apollo veteran, one of only 12 humans to walk on the moon, and the commander of the very first space shuttle flight could be considered a "gadfly" by many within the NASA space shuttle engineering and management structure at that time. |
CMikeW
Member Posts: 89
From: United States
Registered: Apr 2013
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posted 09-10-2016 07:16 PM
I sat in a number of LRR's and L-2's where John Young asked questions that the head table didn't want to hear. Sometimes his questions didn't mean much to me, but the questions were really about flying the shuttle and safety issues within that realm. Most of the time NASA management was not looking for problems to surface, but for the element contractors to say everything was just peachy and that all problems had been solved and that there were no constraints to a launch. |
Paul78zephyr
Member Posts: 675
From: Hudson, MA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 09-11-2016 06:38 PM
Thank you for that input. Can you say about when that time frame was? |
CMikeW
Member Posts: 89
From: United States
Registered: Apr 2013
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posted 09-12-2016 05:30 PM
From 1984 until 2001 I went to many of the NASA Rollout Reviews, FRR's, LRR's, first concerning the Shuttle Discovery then Atlantis. |
Paul78zephyr
Member Posts: 675
From: Hudson, MA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 09-12-2016 07:12 PM
quote:
Originally posted by CMikeW:
From 1984 until 2001...
Was Young still Associate Director (Technical) in 2001? |
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