spacetoday.net: Panel members criticize NASA return to flight work

Posted: Thu, Aug 18, 2005, 8:48 AM ET (1248 GMT)
NASA

Several members of a task force charged with evaluating NASA's effort to return the space shuttle flight believe the agency has yet to solve cultural problems that were at the root of the Columbia accident two and a half years ago. In an appendix to the final report of the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Force, seven of the group's 26 members concluded that organizational and cultural issues that had been previously identified as contributing to the Columbia accident still existed within NASA. The minority group, whose members included former astronaut Susan Helms and former CBO director Dan Crippen, said the shuttle program still suffered from a lack of ""focused, consistent leadership and management". The members cited a lack of program management skills and "rigor in execution" as signs of a problem. The minority report, which task group co-chairs Thomas Stafford and Richard Covey declined to comment on, was included at the behest of NASA administrator Michael Griffin.