Report on Columbia accident.
The report on the loss of the space shuttle Columbia was released last week. (*) It is 248 pages. (†)
What is most disturbing is the report’s indictment of the management culture at NASA, a perfect echo of the criticism of NASA following the 1986 loss of the Challenger. It is pathetic at this point, but NASA now seems to have a web-based safety problem reporting system. (‡)
Congress should get its share of the blame, however, for failing to fund NASA more generously. Had Congress given NASA the money it needs, we would at least have the next generation space plane ready to go. With Congress’s yearly pittance of $10 billion paid to one of the government’s most important agencies, it will take years before the space plane is ready.