Thread by @wmcarterelliott

Reagan was NOT the benevolent saint that most GOP think he was.

He was convinced that he could defeat the USSR w/ a "Limited Nuclear War" (they don't exist), but he didn't get the military to buy-in on his delusion, so he threw $26 Billion at the Strategic Defense Initiative...

https://twitter.com/ChrisJZullo/status/1358153007905595392

... which I became the architect for, after the first one quit.

They had 22,000 nukes, and if I stopped 99% of them, then we'd still be hit with 220 H-Bombs. Any system less than perfect would be inadequate.

But even if the full system were perfect, it's made of satellites...

... and you can't launch a thousand satellites at the same time.

The Soviets would be forced to strike before ~15% of the full number of SDI sats were in place or surrender. SDI would ensure the worst-case scenario happening.

I said so to the Brass we were briefing, and...

my statement was quietly welcomed by the Brass, but the contractors fighting over the $26B were not as pleased.

The military started discussing "Cost-effectiveness at the Margin" (ignore the Trillions that it cost, but if they spent a $Mil on SDI counter-measures, how much money

would it cost us to defeat their counter-measures? More than a million?

Fvck yes. Dumb question.

And that's how the military made the point to Reagan, to get him to drop the idea.

It didn't work.

Gorbachev called a summit, and offered to dismantle their ICBMs if he'd stop SDI

That was political suicide for Gorbachev - The Red Army's Strategic Rocket Force was The Elite of all the Soviet military.

Reagan laughed in his face.

Gorbachev left, knowing what Plan B was. Relying on KGB sabotage to deny our access to space.

Gray Smoke = Bomb, not O-ring.

OK, Feynman proved that the O-rings were frozen.

I studied the Shuttle design in my Space Technology course. The prof *hated* the Shuttle w/ a passion.

He specifically described the O-rings - Asking us to guess why they were there.

"To keep the hot gases in!"

He laughed...

"You really think rubber can handle 2000°? No. It rains a lot in Florida. They're there to keep the inside of the SRB dry. They seal the interfaces between sections with High-Temp putty. They smear it on the grain (solid-rocket fuel) like icing a layer cake."

This was 1979.

That puff of gray smoke wasn't an O-ring failing, it was the gas produced by a golf-ball sized bomb built by the KGB and implanted in the putty covertly.

The aim wasn't to blow up the SRB, it was to shove the putty out of the interface. The rocket's own heat burned thru its side

NASA's problem is that it's got a collegiate culture - They hire people from everywhere and they seldom check badges. No real physical security of the Shuttle - eg, they hired day-laborers to help install the heat-shield tiles.

Sneaking a golfball-sized bomb in? Duck soup.

If that were all, it'd just be another "Bigfoot sighting" Conspiracy Theory.

Check the old issues of Aviation Week and count how many successful launches we had after Challenger.

We had one successful satellite launch out of the next 11. The launch reliability before was 97%.

The likelihood of ten failures out of 11 launches is microscopic. NO WAY it was just a string of bad luck.

KGB sabotage to halt SDI.

And strengthen the KGB's power in the Kremlin.

PUTIN's notoriously fond of sabotage.

@sarahkendzior @MollyMcKew @MollyJongFast @VP @quinncy