Curmudgeons drew me to this piece on NASA.
Although Zimmerman points the blame of NASA's backwards culture on the overly large and bureaucratic NASA management where for every two engineers there is one manager, the commander of the next shuttle flight disagrees. Instead she blames a culture that had gotten lax on safety.
I think the Commander is wrong. NASA has a culture absolutely obsessed with safety. So much so that the Shuttle is put through ridiculous tests that have delayed the space shuttle return to flight again and again. NASA has a culture adverse to risk if anything.
What's worse is that there is no real guarantee that any of the new safety measures put in place would have actually prevented the last shuttle disaster.
Nasa should just become an idea's factory that manages projects. They should get out of manufacturing etc and let more efficient people do it. Sort of tendering contracts for high level jobs. Of course not any company can do all this work and there is the issue of security and sensitivity.
ReplyDeleteBrian Walsh