> The information I heard was that it was an unusually cold day, and the 
> entire craft was covered in sheets of solid ice, and several people 
> suggested that they hadn't really tested for this and it would be better 
> to wait for the weather to change. But that didn't suit the launch 
> schedule, so they launched anyway.
>
> Weather the temperatures were actually outside the spec sheet I have no 
> idea. (I'm also not actually sure how accurate the above tale is, for that 
> matter.) I'm sure temperature ranges were tested, but ice? Maybe they 
> hadn't thought about that. IDK.

OK, I just read about it on Wikipedia, and apparently they knew of the 
design flaw that the o-rings could be compromised at low temperatures, but 
they didn't address the problem.  I wonder who the most senior person was 
who knew about this, and why they didn't escalate it further...

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