What Troubles NASA
By Gary Aldrich (09/02/03)
A 248-page report issued by a 13 member board on the Columbia space shuttle accident makes 29 important recommendations to ensure the safe return of the shuttle for use in America’s space program. However, there is nothing new in this report.
The errors made by NASA management leading up to the tragic destruction of the shuttle and all lives aboard on February 1, are the same errors, large and small, made thousands of times a year by millions of employees working for hundreds of federal agencies - all struggling under the iron-fisted grip of a jealous, defensive, and sometimes revengeful bureaucracy.
The report charges that fully half of the reason for the disaster was "ineffective leadership" that "failed to fulfill the implicit contract to do whatever is possible to ensure the safety of the crew."
Of course the loss of the crew was terrible, and their deaths contributed most to the national mood of sorrow. However, the demise of a single unmanned space vehicle always provides significant setbacks for space programs. Billions of dollars invested in research and development, the hardware, the cost of the infrastructure necessary to develop, plan, launch, and monitor the flight, along with the loss of the information gleaned from a successful recovery are all good reasons to do everything possible to ensure success.
But, we have seen other examples in our recent past of agencies that fail in their missions, simply because the management discouraged any dissent from rank-and-file employees. The lack of accountability of federal agency managers ultimately creates "blind spots" and weaknesses – a good example being the risk to the space shuttle of the foam insulation impact. After September 11, 2001 attention was directed to the FBI and CIA, after it became obvious the managers there had also lost sight of their mission.
Bureaucratic stumbling and fumbling is so predictable, it’s a mystery how any serious politician or presidential appointee can accept assignments in the federal government without having as an important and ongoing goal reforming the agency they inherit.
When President Bush took office in 2001, there was no serious talk about undoing the damage done to the executive branch by eight torturous years of Bill and Hillary Clinton. However, there was evidence stacked up everywhere that much atrophy had occurred at intelligence agencies due to the lack of attention and respect – not to mention lack of funding along with mismanagement of resources – during the dark years of Clinton.
Yet it was not until 9/11 that serious attention was paid to the reforms necessary at the FBI and CIA.
Many like myself raised alarms that were supported by congressional hearings – and yet it was easier to believe these warnings were the ranting of Clinton haters, given to hyperbole and exaggeration. After all, Bill and Hillary Clinton said so, so it must have been true!
Thus, serious warnings of an impending national security calamity were treated as mere suggestions or overheated opinions. Was the same thing happening down the street at NASA? My understanding is that whistleblowers at NASA got no more respect than whistleblowers in any other agency, including those working inside the White House.
It would be very positive and downright refreshing if newcomers to Washington, D.C. would correctly assume the system is old fashioned, and in some cases, seriously broken. A string of serious failures prove this is so. Instead, good men and women who would otherwise never tolerate such laziness and incompetence in the private sector, come to this town and stand in awe of the monuments, and gape at the glory and splendor of the marbled halls of the rich federal agencies.
The naive believe from appearance that serious work product and high quality flows from within those impressive federal walls. However, newcomers would do the nation a service if they would only talk to the long-time employees. Then they would find out the real story: It’s not hard to hire and keep good employees – it’s impossible to get rid of the lousy ones.
Only after the incompetence is flushed out and accountability is restored to these agencies, will they follow the missions entrusted to them – many of which carry life or death consequences.
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