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hero of the right stuff, Major Chuck Yeager. Jack Ridley was the engineer. Col. Boyd's biggest concern was whether the structural integrity of the X-1 could withstand the extreme stress loads. He told Chuck, "This is highly dangerous work. If you decide you want to quit this program at any time, it will not be held against you in any way. If you feel that way, I expect you to call me and say so. We can afford that kind of failure, but we can't afford to hurt anybody. And later, after approving further tests: "I don't want you to be railroaded into this deal by Ridley or anyone else. If you don't feel comfortable with the risks, I want you to tell me so...Please don't play the hero, Chuck. It makes no sense getting you hurt or killed."

Shortly after the catastrophic destruction of the Challenger on January Twenty-Eighth, Nineteen Eighty-Six, astronaut John Young published a previous memo critical of the problems with the booster seals. Chief Astronaut Henry Hartsfield stated his annoyance and concern at not having been informed of the seriousness of the seal problem - a problem well known to NASA for at least five years. During that time NASA had rejected three government-funded studies warning that the booster rocket was almost certain to explode and instead declared the booster virtually risk free. Specific warnings were given within NASA in, for example: Nineteen Eighty and Nineteen Eight-four. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, boosters recovered after several flights showed signs of significant O-ring erosion. Following this, NASA asked its contractor, Morton Thiokol, to seek a solution. Thiokol set up a task force. In October, Nineteen Eighty-Five a low-level Thiokol manager complained of lack of support for the task force.

On December Twelfth, Nineteen Eighty-Two, the joint problem had been moved to criticality one - meaning that it lacked a fail-safe backup system and further that if the item failed it might lead to loss of mission and crew. Seven hundred and forty-eight parts carried a C-1 designation, one hundred and fourteen

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I'm not sure how to end this page, given that it ends in the middle of a word that carries onto the next page