Thursday, September 04, 2003

The Blame Game The White House and Congress must share some blame for the space shuttle accident that killed seven astronauts, the chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board said Thursday according to the Associated Press. Ret. Navy Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr. testified before a Congressional committee: "After a tragedy, they take a whole lot of management actions," Gehman said. "But over the years forces begin to act on them. Some are budget pressures from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue" — a reference to Congress and the White House. He said the space shuttle management gets squeezed by budget pressures and schedules and takes money away from some measures that assure safety. "We find this to be unhealthy," Nevertheless, some of our esteemed Representatives chose to pass the buck. One such luminary is Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.). According to Boehlert: it was NASA management that made decisions to shift money around in the agency and to build an internal system that put less emphasis on safety. He said even if NASA "got a blank check" some of the agency's decisions that contributed to the Columbia accident would not have been affected. I say this to Congressman Boehlert: I want to thank Solonor for this wonderful little invention. I wish I had it at my last law firm. File under Space, The Final Frontier. 11:02:24 PM