On Fri, 19 Jul 2002, Bob Ammerman wrote:

>Yes,
>
>This was Apollo 13...
>
>The problem was that a thermostat switch got damaged during testing and then
>stuck on while in flight.
>
>It turns out the t-stat wasn't rated for the voltage/current it had to
>switch.
>
>Seems to me to be a pretty brainless error, but they were trying to get the
>rockets off the ground pretty quickly back then. You know, to beat those
>nasty communist Russians ;-)

This may be the official line but ever since I started to know the ropes a
little bit here in the *east* I believe that they did it to save $17.99.
It must have looked good on the accounting sheets and some beancounter
probably had an orgasm over it.

I do not want to know what the Soviet equivalent of saving $17.99 is.

Peter

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