NASA Culture Still Broken? "a habit of dismissing the concerns of knowledgeable underlings"

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/AP: Analysis: NASA Culture Still Broken?
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 28, 2007
Filed at 9:29 p.m. ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- At NASA, once again, the problem is its culture -- a habit of dismissing the concerns of knowledgeable underlings.

Four years ago, it involved higher-ups ignoring engineers who feared possible catastrophic damage to the shuttle Columbia. The engineers were right.

This time, it's NASA doctors and even astronauts getting the brushoff when voicing worries that some astronauts have drunk too much alcohol before flying.

''I think things have changed, but some things remain the same,'' said Douglas Osheroff, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who investigated the Columbia disaster in 2003....

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All NASA's leadership wants, several senior flight surgeons told the panel, is to hear that all medical systems are ''go'' for space flight operations. They do not want to hear doctors' doubts about an astronauts' fitness for duty or behavioral problems, the panel was told.

That was the same perception low-level engineers had during Columbia's final flight: Their bosses only wanted to hear positive news about the fuel-tank insulating foam that broke off and turned into deadly shrapnel that punctured Columbia's wing. Seven astronauts died....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-NASAs-Culture-Clash.html