Page 177 - MY STORY

suggestion of adding sodium dichromate to inhibit

corrosion and told the astronauts to be “careful.”

SHUTTLE ORBITAL MANEUVERING SYSTEM AND
STRENGTH DEPARTMENT
The Strength/Structures departments did not hold us
M&P brethren in high regard. In fact, they considered

M&P engineers as slaves to their dictates and felt that all
the M&P folk had to do was fill out tables of data, so the
strength folk could make all the materials selection and

design decisions. M&P was there to gather data and not
much else unless something went terribly wrong. Most

the M&P folk accepted this appraisal of their roles and
responsibilities, but I bristled under it. This was not the
way I had been raised by my former managers.

We were in the process of bidding a major program to
NASA and Rockwell (North American) to design and

build the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) for the
Space Shuttle. The OMS consisted, mainly, of two pods
attached to the Shuttle aft fuselage that permitting

maneuvering in orbit as well the propulsion system to
de-orbit the shuttle for its return voyage from space. All
the propellant tanks and pressure vessels in the pod had to

be “leak-before-burst” design. That is, if a flaw in a