developing a distrust between the ground and people in space, and that communications barrier leads -- will lead to all sorts of trouble. all this conversation was in the hall after they had already decided there was no danger. but the decision was wrong, as hale points out. and what wayne was objecting to, what wayne was regretting was not slapping this guy down right away saying that was crazy. he didn't do it. it turned out he didn't have to because they never would have told. they never felt it was lost. but they missed the chance to find the mistake. they missed the chance to at least go down swinging, go down fighting. trying to fix the hole, trying to get a rescue ship up, trying to get international aid to resupply the shuttle. all those things would have been at least tried. whether they worked or not, we still don't know. but dying out of nowhere, totally out of left field, blindsided by reality, that's a way no one really wants to go.