Mistakes Of NASA Toted Up

[Scott M. Kozel]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48779-2003Jul12.html?nav=hptoc_n

"Mistakes Of NASA Toted Up"
_Washington Post_ - Sunday, July 13, 2003

[Hallerb]

So sad. Roger whats your opinion on this?

From the beginning I said it was a management failure. You said wait till the
investigation occurs.

Do you still defend those people?

HAM AND THE OTHERS SHOULDNT GET TRANSFERED THEY SHOULD BE FIRED!

[Bruce Palmer]

Scott M. Kozel wrote:

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48779-2003Jul12.html?nav=hptoc_n
>
> "Mistakes Of NASA Toted Up"
> _Washington Post_ - Sunday, July 13, 2003

A chilling article. So now we have 2 catastrophes that should have been
avoided. The article suggests something that I've thought for a long
time: the current organization of the NASA Centers is ill-suited to
dealing with man-rated spacecraft. There's too much bureaucracy,
politics, not-invented-here syndrome and turf protection to effectively
serve the interests of safety. Or budgets for that matter.

During Apollo there was such a massive workload that it probably made
sense to farm out the work to different parts of the country. Spread
the wealth, so to speak, and gain political backing as a side benefit.
Today's SSP and ISS are probably better served by a much more
centralized system of oversight and responsibility. If the tank/foam
guys are across the street, instead of in far-off Alabama, it's a lot
easier to get answeres for the orbiter guys. Instead, it appears as
though the Houston people shipped out responsibility for the foam and
the ET to Marshall and could do little else but wait for a response. At
that point, the issue became somebody else's problem. Out of sight =
out of mind, and even if it _wasn't_ out of mind, there doesn't seem to
be a lot Houston could have done to get Marshall to move on the damned
issue. Politics and bureaucracy.

I think it's time to re-visit the necessity of all the different NASA
Centers spread around the country with an eye towards consolidation.
Political inertia and job related issues are tough obstacles to
overcome, but it's high time all manned space activity be centered in
one location. All the senior managers responsible for anything related
to the safety of manned flight need to have more face time with each
other even if that means just saying hello in the parking lot every day.

Looking back, I remember at one of the very first press conferences in
the first week of February when they had the Q&A session afterwards.
Dittemore, I think, had just laid out in rough terms how they were
planning to do the investigation. This was before the CAIB had come
into being. They took questions from the local reporters and then used
a phone bridge to take questions from other NASA Centers. One of the
first questions I heard from one of the Centers, and I think it was
Marshall, didn't deal with anything technical at all. The questioner
merely wanted to know what the investigation would mean as far as work
for the Centers. I thought it odd at the time. I now think it was
representative of a mindset that seriously needs to be eradicated from
our nation's manned spaceflight effort.

--
bp
Proud Member of the Human O-Ring Society Since 2003

[Roger Balettie]

"Hallerb" > wrote:
> So sad. Roger whats your opinion on this?

My opinion remains -- this is reporting from a number of unnamed "sources".

Wait for the final report.

> From the beginning I said it was a management failure. You said wait till
the
> investigation occurs.

And it has yet to conclude.

> Do you still defend those people?

Until they are proven guilty, yes. Unlike you, I don't cluck over every
news article as if it were the ultimate and absolute truth. There are too
many questions remaining to be answered by the final CAIB report.

I will wait for that... you may cluck "the sky is falling" at your leisure.

Roger
--
Roger Balettie
former Flight Dynamics Officer
Space Shuttle Mission Control
http://www.balettie.com/

[Bruce Palmer]

Mike Speegle wrote:
> Welcome to political reality, then and now. Bruce, do you think
> Congress would approve a dime if all NASA's money were spent in Florida?
> Not a friggin' chance. That's the way the system works. Sad but
> reality.

Yeah, I hear you. It is sad.

Congress has been trying to impose cost-cutting and savings on NASA for
years (not without some justification IMHO). What will their reaction
be if a fundamental reason for the Columbia accident turns out to be
"You didn't spend enough money on safety"? I can't see that going over
very well, either.

--
bp
Proud Member of the Human O-Ring Society Since 2003

[OM]

On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 19:44:14 GMT, Bruce Palmer
> wrote:

>Congress has been trying to impose cost-cutting and savings on NASA for
>years (not without some justification IMHO). What will their reaction
>be if a fundamental reason for the Columbia accident turns out to be
>"You didn't spend enough money on safety"? I can't see that going over
>very well, either.

....Maybe it's the kick in the balls that Congress needs, Bruce. IMHO,
someone needs to physically bitchslap every single politician who
decries NASA spending and/or tries to get the budgets cut.
Bitchslapped and then explained that if it happens again, it'll be
their balls that are removed, and that if anyone dies because of
safety failures due to reduced budgets, they won't be far behind on
the path to wherever corrupt politicians go when they die.

As it stands now, Congress owes us for 17 Astronauts and a couple of
pad techs, IIRC. I'd call it almost even if they'd behead Proxmire,
Mondale and Barton in the Rotunda, tho...


OM

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