Quote:
The destruction of space shuttle Columbia and the death of its seven astronauts were caused by a NASA culture driven by schedule, starved for funds and burdened with an eroded, insufficient safety program, investigators said Tuesday.
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Some blame in the report was shifted to Congress and the White House because for almost a decade NASA lived on a lean budget that actually lost 13 per cent of its purchasing power from 1993 to 2002.
At the same time, NASA was under pressure to build the International Space Station. To cut costs, the agency reduced its staff and contractor workforce from about 32,000 in 1991 to just over 19,000 in 1997.
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"The White House, Congress and NASA leadership exerted constant pressure to reduce or at least freeze operating costs (for the space shuttle)," the report said. As a result, "safety and support upgrades were delayed or deferred, and Shuttle infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate."
At another point, the report noted: "Little by little, NASA was accepting more and more risk in order to stay on schedule." Also: "The program was operating too close to too many margins."
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Hmmmm.... Lemme get this straight. NASA had too little money and had too much demanded of it while its budget and labor force kept getting crunched, ergo.... NASA is to blame. WTF?? [img]graemlins/dontknowaboutyou.gif[/img] Sorry, I may need to bone up on my syllogisms, but this.... does... not... compute. Syntax error.
Congress is to blame. Let those slimy politicians stand up and be counted for once. I'd like to see every budget and finance committee vote cutting NASA's funding, denying NASA's requests for more money. Then I say we string them up by their toes. The attorney I know at NASA was talking about shoestring budgets 4 years ago when I interviewed with them. It was bound to happen. Unfortunately, it's our wonderful elected incumbents who are at fault.