"Herb Schaltegger" wrote in message
...
Reading the MMT's repeated protestations of "good intentions" and
hearing their crocodile tears of injured pride all I can think of is the
entirely apropos quoted favored by my mother as I was growing up: "The
road to hell is paved with good intentions."

There are some times when trying hard and meaning well just doesn't cut
it, especially when doing so NEGLIGENTLY results in seven deaths.

You mention the Road To Hell, and I'm thinking on the same lines... The way
this round-table comes across to me is them taking the opportunity to say
"But we tried so HARD! (P.S. don't you dare question our judgement)." I'm
just thinking about what Jim said below, how nobody stands up and says "I
****ed up" or even "Here's where WE ****ed up and here's what we can do to
fix it." There's no active introspection and self-questioning there, except
maybe in hindsight, even though that should be part of any good management
process. And since they excluded him from the conference, quite possibly
because he might ask some tough questions and he's got inside knowledge...
Well. I don't want to call it whining but it almost seems that way. It feels
more like a P.R. opportunity to be apologetic, and say "cross-my-heart &
hope-to-die, it only LOOKS bad but we're really good and it's not our
fault."

The more I think about it, the more important the final CAIB report seems to
be. All we've gotten so far is tidbits, like this conference, the infamous
e-mails, little bits and pieces about NASA's safety culture, budget cuts,
etc. Of course, there's also the chicken little usnet posts and
Thorazine-fueled conspiracy ravings, which certainly don't help any, but we
know that's worthless **** anyhow. In the end I think the CAIB is the only
group that will have BOTH the balls AND the delegated authori-tay to stand
up and say what's wrong, and give it both barrels.

I HOPE that NASA has to "hunker down." If they don't... Well, not to get
too SmallerC-esque, but then the CAIB would be just another bump in the road
on the way to another lost orbiter.

All this is strictly IMO, of course - I'm just an armchair space enthusiast.
This is my view from the computer chair.