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December 30, 2008
NASA Continues Cover Up
Today NASA released a 400 page document titled the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report. Basically, it's a whitewash that calls for stronger seat belts. Just nonsense, really, when you consider that the shuttle started breaking up at 200,000 feet going roughly the speed of light. The real cause of the accident is NASA's reckless hiring of engineers based on quotas instead of qualifications.
Linda Ham helped NASA achieve their EEO goals when they hired her, but then her professional malfeasance contributed directly to the accident when she said there was no way the foam could have damaged the shuttle.
"(T)he material properties and density of the foam wouldn't do any damage," she says in a conversation with engineer Don McCormick.
With that turn of words, Columbia was doomed, five days after a chunk of insulating foam from the orbiter's external fuel tank slammed into the shuttle's left wing leading edge. That strike, according to preliminary information from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, most likely allowed superheated gasses to enter the wing structure, leading to the shuttle's disintegration as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
"Really, I don't think there is much we can do," Ham said in the January 21st conference call. "It's not really a factor during the flight because there isn't much we can do about it."
So a space agency that was known for its "can do" attitude has been reduced do a "nothing we can do" agency. The agency that brought back a damaged tin can of astronauts from the far side of the moon in the Apollo 13 accident, is reduced to a consortium of dolts that can't safely land a glider full of people orbiting the Earth.
Of course, as it turns out, there were a lot of things they could have tried, if they hadn't just thrown up their hands in defeat and said "a)it wasn't damaged, and b)even if it was, there's nothing that could be done." Both of these assessments were dead wrong. It was a defeatist, let's-just-stick-our-heads-in-the-sand-and-hope-for-the-best attitude and she should have been fired for her gross incompetence and negligence, as should everyone from her up that didn't question her baseless and incompetent conclusions.
And there's not a word of this in the report because they're going to keep right on hiring people based on quotas instead of qualifications. But the seat belts will be stronger when the next EEO hire makes a grotesque mistake like this. So they should be fine the next time it happens.
Update: Apparently she did get demoted over her gross malfeasance related to this incident, however, if you think NASA sent her packing, you'd be wrong...shes now working for...are you ready for this?....she's technical director for the Constellation Program where she's involved in the major decisions involving the Ares, Orion and Altair vehicles.
Posted by Rob Kiser on December 30, 2008 at 9:38 PM
Comments
Linda Ham clearly did not have the right stuff. It's appalling to me that she wasn't drummed out of NASA. She should be answering phones someplace or doing some other low-level job where she can do no damage. In the old days, there would have been some accountability, but apparently not in today's NASA. I'm sure there is plenty of blame to go around (including decades old design flaws in the Shuttle itself), but nevertheless, this woman was a disaster. The right person in that job might have made a difference. Linda Ham eliminated any chance that the problem could be corrected. She is as responsible as anyone else for seven (more) dead shuttle astronauts, and yet she still draws a check from NASA. Shameful.
Posted by: Greg on September 2, 2014 at 10:02 PM