e-Claire

Is Failure Becoming an Option?

Today I have the good fortune to be able to present a guest post by another long-time space development advocate and someone who is in a position to give us the word on the "aerospace street." Allow me to present Tycho Ted:

The Best of Intent

I'm writing this Sunday 24 August. It'll probably be posted on Claire's blog on Monday 25 August. And, on Tuesday 26 August, comes the hammer crashing down - on NASA. The so-called Gehman Report, the official report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (in NASAese "CAIB"), will be released.

Word on the aerospace street is that this report will rip NASA a brand new orifice (a different one than was ripped in the left wing of Columbia). The Gehman Commission/CAIB met for months longer than did the Rogers Commission that investigated Challenger. Once bitten, twice shy? The CAIB have taken it upon themselves to investigate not only how Columbia came to grief from a technical standpoint, but how Columbia came to grief from an institutional standpoint. Columbia's loss is yet another accident rooted in history.

I'm here to kick NASA while it's down - no better time! I want to get one particular lick in of my own before the CAIB folks do. The CAIB may also make the same point I am about to make. If so, good!

I just got done watching "Failure is Not An Option," a TV show on the History Channel based on Gene Kranz's book of the same name. The Monday after the Apollo 1 fire (which happened on a Friday night), at the beginning of the first real day back at work for many on Kranz's team in Houston at what eventually was named the Johnson Space Center, Kranz gathered his team together and gave them a speech. He said (in part), "I'm to blame. WE are to blame. We failed. We failed the crew. We will not allow this to ever happen again."

Now, Linda Hamm. Remember her? She was in charge of the "Mission Management Team" for STS-107, Columbia's last flight. This is her reaction at a press conference in July, months after the accident: " I don't believe anyone is at fault for this." Now I'm not trying to single out Ms. Hamm; her husband is an astronaut, she's got two kids, and her heart is, I'm sure, pure. But the ass-covering attitude she envinces in her comment when compared with Gene Kranz's illustrates to me the difference in the mindsets of NASA circa 1969 and NASA today.

Oh, by the way: If you're offended by my comments here, hey, I only had the best of intent…just like Linda did.

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