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.
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.
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.
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.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 49.4 ms ] threadPlease 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.
Another reason: encouraging more people to speak up when they see a problem.
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/...