THIS week’s report on the Columbia shuttle disaster holds few surprises for those who have tracked the investigation week by week (see “NASA culture led to Columbia crash”). But its stinging criticisms will still make uncomfortable reading for NASA managers, rounding off what has by any standards been a terrible few years for the agency.
The credibility of its “faster, better, cheaper” approach to unmanned space probes is in tatters. The International Space Station has been cut down to a shrunken shadow of what it was meant to be. And any excitement about the two NASA rovers en route to the Red Planet is tinged…
