Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut by Mike MullaneMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I found it odd that Mullane, in the middle of the book, talks about how the shuttle designers changed a system and that change caused problems and flight delays. He used the common quote "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Then, at the end of the book, bemoaning NASA's loss of quality in the build of their shuttles, repeats a story about how an aspect of the ship's design was below tolerances, but it flew safely despite those functions being outside the specifications. When Mullane discussed this issue earlier in the story, he says that the spec writers saw what was needed for their part or process to be safe and added some contingent safety requirements, then the designer took those specs and added his own additional safety tolerances so that things tended to be oversafe. Yet by the end of the book he is saying the opposite. You can't have it both ways - "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is the opposite of "sooner or later it'll get you". I'm hoping Mullane at least understands the dichotomy here, but the way this is written, I'm not sure.
I enjoyed the book, despite Mullane's fraternity-level personality. He grows on you.
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