The Challenger Disaster Page #2

So, sir, are you something to do with the enquiry there?

Yeah, I'm on the presidential commission.

Ah.

Alongside some super-important people.

...slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.

Focus now turns to the cause of the tragedy,

as the Presidential Commission...

They gotta get back up there.

Something went really wrong.

Keep that. Thank you.

Sir...

Can I trouble you for an autograph?

Sure.

Who would I make it out to?

Oh...

Not you, sir. I meant Mr Neil Armstrong.

First man on the moon.

You could mail it.

That's my driver number, at that address.

OK.

I promise. Thank you.

Thank you.

So what do you expect to find?

Mr Feynman, what do you expect to find?

Pardon me.

Mr Armstrong, I think we met... Excuse me.

I'm Bill Rogers. I'm chairman of the Commission.

We're very fortunate to have you with us.

Hey, I've got somebody who wants to meet you.

Dr Sally Ride.

Oh... Our first woman in space. Well...

Nice to meet you.

You too. Mmm.

Good journey?

I took the red-eye from LA.

Don't ever do it.

Dr Alton Keel, our executive director.

Nobel laureate, Richard Feynman.

Your name I recognise too. Fellow physicist.

Formerly. I've been in Washington several years. Oh.

How's your integrity?

That's just insulting. No!

Don't take me seriously.

Commissioners.

I appreciate you all coming together at short notice.

We have a huge, vital task ahead of us,

upon which might depend the future

of manned space flight in this country.

Now, I intend for this investigation

to follow an orderly and proper procedure.

We are not going to conduct it in a manner that is in any way

unfairly critical of NASA.

Because we believe, and certainly I believe,

that NASA has done an excellent job.

And I believe that the American people think so too.

Anyone?

We have to accept the fact that this shuttle

is the most complex machine that's ever been built.

I understand it has more than two and a half million parts.

It may be, after due consideration,

it's just not possible to identify the cause.

Now...

In terms of scheduling... That's nothing.

I'm sorry, Dr Feynman?

Two and a half million - small potatoes.

No, really look - I don't know much about space rockets,

but I know a little something about probability.

Something I developed called, um... path integral formulation.

It's quantum mechanics, yuck, yuck. But, um...

Basically, what it means is that you can figure out the probability

of something occurring,

not just when you get two and a half million events,

but an infinity of possibilities.

However large the number of causal paths

for whatever happened to Challenger,

an explanation can be found.

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