I was five when the first men on the moon landed and still remember it well, watching it live from Aberdeen where we were on holiday, on a tiny 12 inch black and white TV with my parents and half a dozen other people. I've been fascinated by space exploration ever since. Later, I saw the first shuttle launch on TV and it brought back those days. Then the Challenger and Columbia disasters. Not the sort of thing you ever forget.

Some very brave people were lost on those occasions. At least partially due to the management not taking things seriously when they should have listened to the engineers. The Challenger disaster was entirely avoidable. Columbia, not quite as clear cut, but even so some major mistakes were made and people paid for it with their lives.

pca