Shuttle report seen delaying launch

The Boston Globe ^ | August 28, 2003 | Gareth Cook, Globe Staff

[snopercod]

The space shuttle is unlikely to fly again until at least next summer, a former NASA official said yesterday -- a delay months longer than NASA leaders predicted before this week's critical report on the Columbia tragedy.

The sweeping changes demanded by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board will probably push the next shuttle launch back to at least July 2004, said Joe Rothenberg, former NASA space flight director. Earlier this month, the current space flight director, Bill Readdy, said that the shuttle might fly as early as March.

[snopercod]

"The problem is that the kind of people who could lead a bold new ambitious effort at NASA are not going to join the current organization,"

Instead, NASA will attract the kind of people who want a protected, civil-service job with 15 paid holidays, a fat retirement, and no personal responsibility. If you screw up, it will be blamed on "the culture".

[snopercod]

I pity the contractors at KSC, having to sit around and read newspapers for another year while NASA figures out how to protect their jobs.

[bonesmccoy]

I think NASA will move faster this time. They know that the Congress is irate with what has occurred.

Congress has always wanted to kill the STS program and the ISS is just another example.

With the X-Prize ramping up and presenting an opportunity to replace NASA's manned spaceflight line items, there is really no reason for KSC or JSC to exist.

If Rutan is funded, he could do the same program at much reduced cost.

[XBob]

1 - ""The problem is that the kind of people who could lead a bold new ambitious effort at NASA are not going to join the current organization," said Tylko."

I tried for years to get on with NASA at KSC, as it is the only employer where I live, and I was qualified as a GS12, coming out of the military, and 20 years of subsequent excellent experience. What I found out was that it was impossible to even get on as a GS4 or 5, at KSC, as it was such a coveted burocratic position. Government workers from all over the US were fighting for every open positions, and since I wasn't already a burro-crat, I couldn't get hired, period. And so I finally got a job with the contractor, (way under my qualifications) and watched the incompetent burro-crats transfer into the vacant KSC-NASA positions.

Most of the many talented engineers I met during my civilian career, wouldn't touch NASA with a 10 foot pole. My brother, got on right out of college, with a degree in Aero-Space Engineering (the 5th such degree granted in the S). He was one of the last engineers with 'stars in their eyes'.

[RightWhale]

wouldn't touch NASA with a 10 foot pole

NASA made me an offer in the 70s. Faced with that, I thought heavily and finally declined the opportunity. Even then something felt wrong.

[XBob]

Thanks for the backup. That (the 70's) is when things started going bad, even before the Apollo program was over. After we reached the moon, the giants started leaving/dying, and the burro-crats started to come in.

Personally, I think you made a good decision. My brother ended up with ulcers, due to his frustrations. I lasted 3 years before I threw in the towel and went back to civilian E&C petro-chem work.