spacetoday.net: CAIB: NASA management problems key to Columbia accident

Posted: Mon, Jul 14, 2003, 10:18 AM ET (1418 GMT)
Members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) said Friday that management problems within NASA played a central role in the events that led up to the Columbia accident. Board members said they believe that problems with management of the shuttle program, as well as a failure of safety systems, had as large a role in the accident as the foam impact that damaged the left wing of the orbiter during launch. They said they found "managerial and budgetary kinds of things" that should have been done better even without the accident. The CAIB will recommend to NASA that the agency treat the shuttle as a developmental, not operational, vehicle, for the remainder of its flights, and increase monitoring and study of the shuttle. The board's final report, now scheduled for release in late August, will discuss these problems in detail, but the board does not plan to single out specific individuals for responsibility for the accident.