Petition to Honor Robert Ebeling, Who Tried to Stop the Challenger Launch | Hacker News Reader

Petition to Honor Robert Ebeling, Who Tried to Stop the Challenger Launch

petitions.whitehouse.gov

167 pointsOliverJones13 comments

Let's ask the US Administration to confer some kind of honor on Robert Ebeling, the engineer at Thiokol who spoke up right before the space shuttle Challenger the night before its ill-fated launch.

Please click the link to sign the petition.

We know Thiokol and NASA went ahead in spite of his warning, and we know how well that worked out.

Recently it has come out that he was isolated by his company and colleagues after he spoke up.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/28/464744781/...

Why honor him? Out of respect for him, and respect for engineers and quality-assurance people everywhere. Sometimes it stinks to be right, but part of engineering is being right and saying so.

> Why honor him?

Another reason: encouraging more people to speak up when they see a problem.

Agreed. It's unfortunate that's not working out so well for Snowden right now.

Should fit right in with the government message: See something, say something.

Oliver, it looks like you're the creator of the petition. Thanks for doing this.

I signed, but it's going to be awfully difficult getting 100,000 signatures in a month. You'll need to campaign for it (contact professional organizations, etc.) if you want it to go anywhere.

Suggestion: If you can edit the title, the first two words at least should be capitalized.

Great effort. I'm not American, but the story of Ebeling (and others at Morton-Thiokol) is taught in engineering schools throughout the world.

I saw there was a great public reaction to the recent NPR article, with an outpouring of sympathy for Ebeling. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/25/466555217/...

It is good to see a petition that is actually within the power of the executive branch rather than being a legislative power.

My father was working at NASA when Challenger was lost, and I work there now. I'm happy to sign this petition.

That's heart breaking he spent so long without hearing confirmation from those above. I'm happy in the end he got the closure he needed.

I don’t think we need this petition. The current and last administration have always honored and protected whistleblowers. It’s not like they would take their passports and run them out of the country or anything.

This was a no brainer. Only 32 signatures? We engineers can do better!

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