Jim, of COURSE they "thought this one out"....and of course it was decided by risk management.

Thats the point. They are taking the path that they perceive to be safest....for the organization. And, by their admission, they are following the herd

(and yes, I expect to hear the arguement that "for the organization" is for the racers, because if there is no organization, there is no racing, but NASA is a profit driven organization, so the motives aren't so clear)

What many are saying is that the bottom line to many racers is a huge expense, just to take a big step backwards in real safety.

And when we talk about what will REALLY happen in court, it gets all cloudy.

I, for one, don't think that, if required, you'd find many risk management types who would risk their salaries on their prediction of what might happen in certain court room scenarios...the "legal bet"

.....but we are being told we must spend our salaries ....when we know we're less likely to win the safety bet.