Task group panelists blast space shuttle management
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD (CBS News space consultant)
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...4/050817rtftg/
August 17, 2005

Seven members of an independent review panel today blasted NASA's
management of the post-Columbia shuttle program, blaming poor leadership for
ongoing, pervasive "cultural" problems and an erosion of engineering rigor
that raise questions about the agency's willingness to fly without a
thorough understanding of the risks involved.

In an "annex" at the end of the final report of the Return to Flight
Task Group, led by former Apollo astronaut Thomas Stafford and former
shuttle commander Richard Covey, seven of the 26 panel members wrote a
scathing set of personal observations detailing "persistent cultural
symptoms we observed throughout the assessment process."