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Show TheSalt Lake Tribune N:ATIONSunday, nday, Juuly 227,2003 Ag Top boss promises to change cultureoffear inside NASA All talk? Engineers say it will take more than words to break theintimidation and behavior patterns that led to accidents By Marcia Dunn TheAssociated Press anxiety in the way they approach this profession.” To the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, the foul-up over satellite images is a prime example of what is wrong members A within NASA — andthe 13 intend to highlight manage- mentfailures in their final report, due outin late August. As the investigators SPACE CENTER, Houston — The space shuttle engineers who desperatély wanted zoom-in satellite pictures of the damaged Columbia in orbit never spoke up at key meetings and never told the see it, poor managementwas as responsible for the February disaster as the foam that knocked a hole in the wing. On both counts, they say, the accident could have been avoided. “There's not any doubt aboutit,” said manager in charge ofthe flight. ‘They were too uncomfortable. Too cd. Air Force Brig. Gen. Duane Deal, a board member. “All these things contributed to allow these foam pieces to Whatever the reason for the chilling continue to comeoff” the external fuel silence, NASA chief Sean O'Keefe is we're all encouraged to raise our hand tanks over the years — “until it finally did catastrophic damage.” Board member John Logsdon blames the problem, atleastin part, on so-called tribalism:“It’s a particular culture, has and say something's not right or some- its own rules and its own behavior thing doesn’t look safe.” patterns.” promising dramatic change. He told employees this past week he is committed to “creating an atmosphere in which For starters, employees will be able NASA's previous boss, Daniel Gold- to go to the NASA Websité and “file anything anybody sees as being off,” in, scared many workers with his abrasive, demanding demeanor, andtheeffects of that may havelingered after he left NASA in late 2001, Logsdon noted. O'Keefesaid. “It will makeit really easy for anybody to participate and voice their concerns anonymously or through any other means they want to,” including NASA's longtime safety-reporting hotline and printed forms. out. “Thinking back, it was probably smart on their part. If it had cost me my job, I might have gotten more response than I got,” Garcia said. “Plus, there were somepeople whowere pretty high up, andI shouldn't mention any names, but from astronauts to deputy center directors to center directors,telling me, ‘Go for it.’” Garcia believes those people were too worried about their own careers to speak up, but that they may have helped protect his. Oberg, too, spoke up when hewas at Goldin things he didn’t want to hear,” was right; a fire and decompression hesaid. Jose Garcia, a retired shuttle opera- But James Oberg,a noted author and tions manager, was one of the few who openly voiced his complaints about NASAsafety cutbacks notonly to Goldin, but to the White House. Whatsurprised the former Kennedy Space Center workerwas notthe loss of another shuttle — he predicted that back in 1995 — butthe fact that he was Challenger accident. “The NASA team Head of Columbia mission management team “There were people afraid to tell Mr. that will solve the problem.“I've heard thatbefore. In fact, I heard that 17 years leaders think they’re way smarter than their record indicates, and they can use a little more humility and little more Linda Ham NASAchief Johnson Space Center in the mid-1990s, warning of the dangers of Mir and the Russian space program. He ultimately former shuttle flight controller, doubts ago,” Oberg said, referring to the 1986 Sean O’Keete not fired or even demoted for speaking crippled the orbiting station. But he was shunned forhis efforts,takenoffcritical e-mail lists and hauled in for frequent job reviews, Eventually, it got so bad he quit in late 1997. Perhaps no one was more stunned the disaster, Ham told reporters last week that she was notified six days into Coiumbia's 16-dayflight about a possible request for spysatellite pictures of the orbiting ship. She said she spent the daytrying to find out who was making the request, by making phone calls. But she could not pin it down, and soshe spiked the appeal and “that was the beginning and the end of it.” At mission management meet ings, she never asked about the poten: tial request never even mentioned it. Hamsays she did not learn the iden tities and concerns of those seeking the satellite images until weeks after Columbia shattered in the Texas sky dur ing reentry because of the hole in the left wing from flyingpiece ofinsulat. ing fuel-tank foam. All seven astronauts were killed. Six long, agonizing months later, Ham acknowledges the system failed and needs to be fixed before shuttle flights resume. Shehas been reassigned and does not know yet what hernext job will be at NASA. One of the NASA engineers who wanted the satellite pictures, Rodney Rocha,was part ofthe assessment team put in place by Ham and other mission managersto study the foam impact. Because of equipment problems, NASA's camera views of the launch were too blurred to show exactly where the debris struck or the damage left behind. “Without better images it will be about the breakdown in communica- very difficult to even bound the problem,” Rocha wroteto colleagues in an email dated Jan. 21, five days after Co- tion during Columbia’s doomed flight than the head of the mission manage- lumbia’s launch. “Can wepetition (beg) for outside agency assistance?” he ment team, Linda Ham. In herfirst public appearance since wrote, putting the question in bold type. decision not to seek satellite photos, he was flabbergasted. In an email to col- leagues which he drafted around Jan, 22 but never sent he wrote: “In my humbleopinion,this is the wrong (and bordering on irresponsible) answer.” On Jan. 24, during a mission management team meeting, Ham put the matter to rest. “No safety of flight, no issue for this mission, nothing that we're going to do different,” Ham said. She went on to discuss the maintenance issues before Columbia's next launch and ended the conversation by asking if there were any questions. Ham paused three seconds. There wasonly silence, and so she moved on to thenext item onthelist. In a recentinterview with ABC News, Rocharecalled the pause and the way Ham looked around the room, “like it’s OK to say something now.” He said he just couldn'tdoit. “T was too low downhere in the organization and she’s way up here,” Rocha told ABC Former astronaut Sally Ride, part of the accident inquiries for both Chal lenger and Columbia, noted how human behavior plays a role and how difficult thatis tofix. This is a very personalitydependent thing, and these large meetings can be intimidating,” said Ride, a physicist who became the first American woman in space20 years ago. “Some people are more reticent, less talkative, more easily intimidated than others.” In the end,accident investigators are uncertain whether spy satellites could havedetected the estimated 6- to 10-inch gouge in Columbia's left wing, a black holein the dark-coloredshielding. Noone will ever know. 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