30 YEARS AGO

30 years ago we watched the shuttle major malfunction. Launched in freezing air, ice covering the shuttle. O rings discussed. I read the NASA report when it came out. Months later an FAA Flight Service Station Operator working at Lunken Airfield in Cincinnati showed me the weather charts of launch day he had kept in his locker. He gave them to me. They showed windshear in central Florida at the altitude where the throttle goes back up. NASA launched anyway, giving our school children a nightmare. Moral: don't stretch the envelope too far.