Today, we uncover some secret disasters. The University of
Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the
machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose
ingenuity created them. A recent book by space engineer James
Oberg titled Uncovering Soviet Disasters deals with what first
might seem a well-worn theme -- that technological disasters are
hushed up in the Soviet Union. But by relentless documentation,
he paints a startling picture that exceeds anything we might
imagine. And an important message comes through. It is that by
hushing up failure, you create a technology that's ill-equipped
to respond to failure. Consider, for example, his story of a
young girl who left Karaganda on a plane to Moscow. She never
got there. Her father, in desperation, flew to Moscow to look
for her. His search led him to the airport police station,
where, now a week later, he was, and I quote, "sternly
instructed to keep the information confidential -- that she was
dead, killed with all the other pa