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07/26/2005 Archived Entry: "Gordon P. on NASA"

Gordon P. writes of NASA, In a manner disturbingly reminiscent of the attitudes that led to the _Challenger_ Disaster, NASA officials plan to bend their own safety rules in order to launch _Discovery_ before the current launch-window closes --- in spite of the fact that NASA techs have not only _not_ been able to fix the malfunction that scrubbed the first attempt at a launch last month, but they haven't even been able to _locate_ the cause of the problem! (One NASA official was quoted as saying, "We have wiggled a lot of wiring and it is possible we have caused the problem, whatever it was, to go away..." Wow --- I'm sure the astronauts who will be riding _Discovery_ found that statement _very_ reassuring... >:-(

As Kirsten T. writes in her blog-entry on the subject, "...Clearly there have been no cultural changes at NASA, just as there weren't after the Challenger incident (I had a professor who used to say, `There are no accidents -- only incidents.'). It's only a matter of time before they kill another half-dozen or so astronauts..."