WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The independent probe of the shuttle Columbia disaster will ask pointed questions about NASA's budget and whether the space agency let too many safety workers go, the head of the inquiry said on Tuesday.
Howard Gehman, who heads the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said the panel will look at NASA's budget, which has remained essentially flat for the last decade and is around $15 billion annually.
Rather than take aim at the numbers, however, Gehman said his board will focus on the impact of tight money for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
"I would go after an effects-based approach -- that is, were employees laid off? Were supervisory positions eliminated? Were quality-assurance, were risk management people laid off? -- rather than the budget number," Gehman said at a televised briefing.
"We'll see where that leads us," he said.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030218_520.html
This is likely coming from the people at Michoud, who make the tank. They have stated that the quality control has suffered in recent years.
One supervisor started a reward program for noted discrepancies. They discovered that people were creating discrepancies in order to collect the rewards. Usually a t-shirt or something.
The supervisor stated that "it was amazing what people would do for a T-shirt".