World News 27-08-2003 NASA Blamed For Shuttle Disaster who: NASA what: Strongly criticised for bad management in shuttle disaster report where: Houston, Texas when: Yesterday snippet: Nasa was accused of complacency and lapses of safety yesterday, reports The Independent following the publication of the 248-page final report into the Columbia shuttle disaster seven months ago, in which seven astronauts died. Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere over Texas on February 1st, recalls the BBC. The $20million inquiry by the Columbia Accident Investigations Board (CAIB) reaffirmed the view that the shuttle broke up because of a breach of the heat shield. But it appears "management blunders were as much to blame as technical problems". According to the board, NASA is "still suffering many of the problems that dogged the organisation in the run-up to the loss of the Challenger in 1986," says The Telegraph. And the report goes on to accuse shuttle managers of "flawed decision making, self-deception, introversion and a diminished curiosity about the outside world". The board made 29 recommendations for improvement and warned that "the scene is set for another accident" unless the inherently "self-protective" organisation can overcome the internal resistance to change, says The Scotsman. Meanwhile, in other astronomical news, Sky reports that Mars is currently "nearer to Earth than at any time since the last Ice Age, almost 60,000 years ago". [... more]

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