[Orangedog]

Foam or no foam, maybe they should have considered retiring a space craft that was over 20 years old. NASA should have been actively developing a replacement for the shuttle after Challenger.

Oh well, maybe when the Chinese start their manned space program in a couple of years we'll get some real leadership at NASA. China has been itching to take the lead away from us some area. Space travel will probably be there area of choice.

[j_tull]

I'm looking for a link to the actual report to see if the "environmentally friendly" reformulation of the insulating foam is mentioned.

[Prof Engineer]

ping

[Sir Gawain]

"There are a lot of things that are worth risking your life for,"

Wasting taxpayers' money must be one of them.

[Wolfie]

"Waiter, there's a flaw in my culture!"

[windchime]

On NASA TV:

Aug. 26, Tuesday
11 a.m. - Columbia Accident Investigation Board Press Conference
2 p.m. - NASA Update with Administrator Sean O'Keefe - HQ

[DoughtyOne]

Sean O'Keefe (search), who heads the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, warned space workers earlier this summer that they should prepare
themselves for a report that will be "really ugly" as it outlines flawed engineering decisions that led to the destruction of Columbia as it returned to Earth following a
16-day mission.

There are times when I just want to rip a reporter's lungs out.  This report should be a major embarassment to NASA employees, but the management structure and "some" engineers, their lack of professional attention to the matter of the foam strikes on the shuttle are the problem here, not the rank and file NASA employees.

We have a serious issue here.  Instead of talking about it in adult terms, we see this nitwit reference "space workers", a term clearly used to place the whole of NASA into an admired untouchable group, almost angelic and clearly incapable of being judged too harshly should the report actually warrant it.

These are NASA employees.  That's the way we have referenced them for thirty years, or at least since the name change, whenever that took place.  That's the way they should be referenced here.  No need to coin a new manipulative term.

Already this morning I've seen reference to the families of the lost crew, saying above all else they support the continued presence of men in space.  Well shezam, there's a news flash.  This isn't about that.  This is about making sure people are held accountable for their negligence and the example is set so that this level of complacence never again costs the lives of seven "space workers".

The manipulators will be out in full force today.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Watch it live

http://www.caib.us/events/press_briefings/20030826/default.html

[Aracelis]

Ping

[Texan5]

Nasa is a culture? Are they a member of Nato? I thought they were the space program....

[RightWhale]

There has been a subtle change at NASA

subtle?

SUBTLE?

SUBTLE?

[Jeff Chandler]

Ping.

BTW, how was your flight?

[JoeSixPack1]

"There has been a subtle change at NASA," Park told Fox, adding that in the control room at the time of the accident he'd been told that "there were no NASA employees. It was all contractors."

Contractors are temp employees hired and fired for one specific job. All the other reasons are secondary to an employee pool that works "on call" and knows exactly when they will be fired.

Nasa's use of this tactic for their employee pool has destroyed any hope for morale, commaraderie or quality control among their workers. Contractors do nothing more then required because of the short lifespan of their employment. And to raise concerns of possible malfunction or unsafe practice could and usually does shorten even further their time of employment.

Been there, saw it first hand while machining shuttle parts outsourced to private firms around the space coast. Nasa saves big bucks on payroll, equipment and employee benfits but has alienated their entire employee pool that do everything and anything for income while waiting for NASA's call to return.

[OldFriend]

The legacy of Daniel Golden..........billclinton's butt boy. Funnelled millions of dollars into the russian space program because they refused to pay their share of the international space station.

I always suspected billandboris simply split the money and had a good laugh at the taxpayer's expense.

[Jeff Gordon]

O'Riley on Fox said, "That little coward, Dan Golden, is home hiding under his bed. He would not answer our phone calls."

The must be something Golden can be indicted for.