Investigator rips NASA managers for rejecting shuttle images

CongressDaily via GovExec.com ^ | May 14, 2003 | unknown

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I think NASA squashed the satellite request because they were afraid of what they would find.

[sarasota]

Why is it always about finding a target to blame? Humans make mistakes. It's always 20/20 vision in the rear-view mirror. It was a disaster, yes, but these people know the risks.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Ping!!

[KevinDavis]

Agreed. Life is dangerous no matter what we do..

[koburnin]

Nasa is horribly discredited now. We don't need to know how spiders weave their web in space at a cost of $100 billion. Shut this fiasco down.

[KevinDavis]

and let China take the lead in human space exploration?? Hell no. Nasa is worth the money and only takes a fraction of our budget. I also think we should privatize human space exploration..

[Diogenesis]

Privatize human space exploration
and begin accountability at NASA.

[KevinDavis]

You have no arguments from me..

[SengirV]

This is GD rediculous. If a piece of F'ing foam moving at a couple miles an hour(relative to the wing at launch) can destroy VITAL tiles, then WTF are they doing even going into space? In space the shuttle can get hit my a grain of sand that would do more damage than a 2 pound piece of foam traveling 20 miles an hour. No alternates to perform repairs in space is unconscionable. A space walk performed at the ISS or Mir(at the time) that would slap a temp fix in place to replace a missing tile or two seems to be a minimum that should have been in place.

I grew up in the 70s and have a fading memory of the last moon landing. What NASA has done since then is criminal. Keep on going with LOW EARTH ORBIT missions and wonder why there is no intrest in space. Idiots.

[eno_]

The problem is that, evidently, there was the worst kind of management failure at NASA:

They knew debris struck the shuttle.

The willfully didn't want to know how bad the damage was.

They tried to obfuscate and deflect the discussion from the obvious: Debris caused damage, and the damage caused the shuttle to be torn apart by superheated air.

They lied about not being able to do anything if they knew it was bad - they later admitted they could have kept the shuttle up long enough to fly another shuttle or possibly a Soyuz.

They sent a shuttle full of our best and brightest to their deaths, not because of the risks of space flight, but because of failures in human decison-making.

And, over the course of the shuttle program, they have endangered lives and strategically important capabilities by running "science missions" when, after Challenger, the shuttle should have become a military-only program.

The consequences of a failure that large and comprehensive should be a complete reboot of NASA management, or, better still, disband NASA and start over.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

I think NASA squashed the satellite request because they were afraid of what they would find.

Or maybe afraid of a Russian rescue!?

[eno_]

I agree with most of what you say, but it wasn't a love pat the shuttle got from that foam: The shuttle was moving at transsonic speeds, and the foam quickly slowed enough that the relative velocity was hundreds of miles per hour. I don't know how much it weighed, but even one kilo of foam at that speed is a very big deal.

And I certainly agree that just crossing your fingers and hoping it isn't as bad as it might be is not what anyone should call "a good plan."

[MikeD]

Unfortunately, Columbia could never reach the ISS. Otherwise, I agree with your assessment.

If only the astronauts would have had some Beaman's...

MD

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

I also think we should privatize human space exploration.

Anybody who wants to launch satallites into space can do so, yet they don't without going through the government. But this is not exploration. There is no profit in space exploration. So the government will have to fund, at least partially.

[Gary Boldwater]

I say add some more seats to the Shuttle, perhaps in the cargo bay. Make sure some NASA bureaucrats fly with every mission.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

If a piece of F'ing foam moving at a couple miles an hour

The foam was probably soaked with ice and going a couple hundred miles an hour relitive to the wing. Once lifted off it will almost instantly decelerate.

[MississippiMan]

Why is it always about finding a target to blame? Humans make mistakes.

Because these people get paid taxpayer dollars to do a job and do it well. If they're so incompetent that they cause deaths, they need to be replaced by someone who's not.

Since they know the risks, why don't we just stop making better military hardware to give our guys the edge on the battlefield, eh? Same thing.

MM

[sarasota]

I have a better idea. Why don't we stop exploring space altogether and spend those billions somewhere else?

[The Duke]

If only the astronauts would have had some Beaman's...

...and a cut off broom stick to "wank down" on that loose tile. ;)

[koburnin]

take that fraction of the budget and find those WMD we killed thousands for?