There was quite a discussion here on rcm right after the space shuttle crashed as a result of the foam debris impact damage. Most of the discussion devolved down to the question of, "did they know how bad it was, and what could they have done about it?"
Most of us were under the impression that NASA attempted to image the damage, and for whatever reason, could not get the high resolution photos needed to properly asses the damage.
The article in the NY Times on sept 26th indicates that's not quite how the whole thing played out. Apparently there were many engineers who wanted to obtain imaging from outside NASA, and petitioned the NASA management to do so.
The management ignored the requests, and when they became insistent enough, cancelled the requests that were going up the chain inside NASA.
When Rodney Rocha (a nasa engineer) saw the initial video that was taken during the launch, he sent an email to to the manager of the shuttle engineering office, Paul Shack. Shack never responded. Rocha sent a second message to Shack.
Apparently Calvin Schomberg, a veteran engineer who was regarded as an expert in the shuttle's thermal protection system
- although his expertise was in heat resisting tiles, not the reinforced carbon-carbon that protected the wing's leading edges - had been reassuring shuttle managers.
Whether because of Mr. Schomberg's influence, or because managers simply had no intention of taking the extraordinary step of asking another agency to obtain images, Mr. Rocha's request found its way into a bureaucratic dead end.
On Wednesday, an official that Mr. Schomburg had spoken to (Ms. Linda Ham, the chairwoman of the shuttle management team) cancelled Rocha's request and two other similar requests from other engineers associated with the mission, according to the investigation board.
Mr. Rocha sent Mr. Shack another message asking why the requests for extra-agency images had been cancelled. Shack replied "Im not going to be a Chicken Little about this" recalled Rocha.
There were apparently other meetings between management and engineering staff, which became quite heated. Rocha and Schomburg argued extensively. In another meeting Linda Ham shut down a discussion of the debris strikes to move the meeting along.
After the crash, Rocha came into direct contact with a head NASA adminstrator, Sean O'Keefe, and detailed what had happened. The investigation board recommended that now, outside agencies should take images during every flight, and 11 of the 15 top shuttle manages should either retire or be re-assigned, including Linda Ham. Nasa apparently is following those suggestions.
(previous almost verbatim from the NYTimes article)
My take: they really screwed up. They weren't even in the running to try to save those folks' lives. They had no clue and didn't want one. The managers squashed anyone with initiative or engineering common sense. Sure, maybe the astronauts were in a flying coffin, that nothing could be done. But that idea is completely anathema to all the other former NASA disasters or near disasters.
I bet all the Apollo 13 crew were reading this, and thinking, 'damn I'm glad *she* wasn't in charge when that oxygen tank blew up. We never would have made it home, because everyone on the ground would have been too busy playing CYA.'
Jim
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