Geek Habitat

NASA still has issues, according to an oversight panel convened to gauge NASA’s compliance with the Columbia Accident Investigation Board’s requirements for return to flight.

While I don’t doubt the aforementioned task force has some of the right intentions (saving astronauts lives from needless risks), I do question their timing. Why didn’t they publish and/or air these grievances prior to the launch of STS-114 (Discovery), if saving astronauts lives was really their sole, overriding priority?

Instead, they wait until the mission returns home, safely, to wring their hands and yell, “Yeah, so they made it home safe, but look what COULD have happened!”

Further, the task force blasts NASA for how much it cost over the past 2.5 years to get the Shuttle flying again. Are they all serving on the task force in a pro bono capacity? Even if they are, would they rather NASA had spent less money and done less to research and address issues with the Shuttle, create new equipment (heaters on the external tank, to replace troublesome areas of foam), obtain high quality video and still cameras to image the entire orbiter, including during ascent, and train the crew in new techniques? Talk about sending mixed messages…

If someone believes the situation to be dire, they should be elevating that to the highest levels in NASA and the government before launch, not weeks after a Shuttle mission has successfully included, no?

If it looks like politics, and smells like politics, it must be politics…