x (Mutts) writes:

Years of declining NASA budgets under the Clinton administration and
NASA used as a political tool (GoreSat nonsense, gobs of money spent bailing
out he russian space program, messing with environmentally safe foam instead of
one that works better, etc).
Doesnt this deserve more attention? The report certainly considers
the budget a major factor. Seems to me Clinton/Gore failed NASA.
What do you think?

I think that there is a political component in the factors that led to
the loss of the Columbia, but it's not particularly partisan, it's more
mixed up with the kinds of self-interest that politics and politicians
always have. That is, I don't think you can single out one side or
another and say that they are to blame. It looks to me that all
administrations, and about all Congress folk have bent NASA according to
their political and pork-barrel desires. To someone who wants to see us
become a space-faring civilization, there has been no one I could point
to who has done much to help.