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Originally posted by WillowIX:
Come on Timber. You really didn't expect your Congress would take the blame for something like this. It was pretty obvious that NASA would have to take the blame. However NASA could have stopped the project...
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It could? NASA could just say, "sorry 'bout that whole international space station thingy, but we're strapped for cash." I think not. Look, they would have had to scrap all projects. This problem was caused by cost-cutting measures, and would have resulted sooner or later on any given shuttle flight.
I don't expect politicians to blame themselves. But, I try to make it obvious to others that the blame falls squarely on the politicians. We should keep our eyes open when the blame game starts. And we should be angered. Rolling our eyes because "it happens all the time" is part of the reason it happens all the time.
NASA is and has been seriously underfunded. What we ask of them is akin to asking Ford to build cars that never fail and never have any safety failures for $3K a piece. It's ridiculous. Especially for one of our most worth-while programs. Medicines, new technologies, and inventions have all resulted from our efforts to get into space and from our studies and experiments in space. The contribution NASA has made to this world in the last four decades is phenomenal.