That time fundamentalist Mormons almost got Big Bird killed.
Specifically, about how Morton Thiokol o-ring subcontractor HydraPak (originally Utah Tool & Die, later Western Precision, and now “NewEra Manufacturing” based in Cedar City, Utah), which made the o-rings of the Challenger that failed on 1986-01-28, killing the entire NASA crew, was started and run as a front operation for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) religious sect by its prophet Rulon Jeffs (father of currently imprisoned prophet Warren Jeffs) as Utah Tool & Die. For more details, read the book Prophet’s Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints by Sam Brower.
Was it really them or administrators ignoring the warnings about o-rings and freezing? I mean a non-freezing o-ring would be nice.
All but two people (whose names escape me) through the rings would be fine.
They are called Big Bird and The Count I believe.
I guess not everyone grew up on Sesame Street.
i could have sworn one was snuffalupagus.
He’s just a figment of your imagination.
Wait you can get even more fundamentalist than a regular mormon?
yeah, it’s scary.
basically fundamentalist mormon means polygamist tho. like, explicitly, whereas just regular mormon it’s implicit.
I wouldn’t say it is implicit. The leadership has been trying really hard to backpedal and say they never do and have never done polygamy (except some nebulous long ago time period).
Honestly doesn’t sound as bad as I was imagining.
watch the documentary “Keep Sweet” on netflix about Short Creek and the Jeffs. it’s bad.
one of my grandfathers escaped that cult. we were proud of him for doing it, but it was a constant battle for him to not fall into his old culty habits.
Holy shit, Warren Jeff’s father?! Dude, America has some fucked up families.
don’t get me started about how the mormons controlled the us sugar industry. mostly because i don’t know specifics.
The Challenger exhaust trail leading up to an explosive split, punctuated by a cloud of yellow feathers
SMOSH try not to laugh bit:
I like the idea presented in this video that just having Big Bird apart of the Challenger mission would have caused a chain reaction in upper management which would have stopped it from being a disaster.
Too soon
It was over 40 years ago, though. If it were Columbia, that would be different. I actually blame Boeing for Columbia, they put together what is commonly referred to as “Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed 7 people”.
Wow. That’s a fucked up read.
https://mcdreeamiemusings.com/blog/2019/4/13/gsux1h6bnt8lqjd7w2t2mtvfg81uhx
As a teenager my buddy’s mom told us a joke.
What does NASA stand for?
Needs Another Seven Astronauts
How do they know Christa McAuliffe had dandruff?
They found her head and shoulders on the beach.
Dark shit for an elementary school, but we were brutal.
Did you know Christa McAuliffe had blue eyes?
One blew this way and one blew that way.
I would have been in 4th grade at the time.
NASA should have pressed for more detail than a deck though
