If something happens to the shuttle on this one, it would be mistakenly shut down. Or [NASA would] really back off the program.

NASA doesn't run the shuttle, U.S.A. does. Because much of this is invisible, the general public doesn't understand the depth of involvement of U.S.A. NASA wants to let private companies get people into low Earth orbit.

Because the shuttle is docked, it wouldn't be able to go after them if they got away.

All the NASA families know one another, and they're very close.

If a person feels he can't communicate, the least he can do is shut up about it.

After the Challenger accident, NASA put in a lot of time to improve the safety of the space shuttle to fix the things that had gone wrong.