Columbia Space Shuttle- Final Mission :: American History, NASA

capital of South Carolina Final MissionWayne Hale, Deputy Shuttle ManagerWroteLast course of study we dropped the torch through our complacency, our arrogance, self assurance, sheer stupidity and through our keep attempt to please everyone. Seven of our friends and colleagues paid the ultimate price for our failure. in so far the nation is giving us another chance..We must not FailMore then three years ago the musculus quadriceps femoris Shuttle Columbia went down in flames, due to the damage caused entirely not limited to, a piece of insulating froth that broke arrive at the external tank and struck the references leading edge. The coruscate struck with luxuriant force to create an opening in the wing which allowed hot plasma to enter during reentry. No one thought that foam could cause this untold damage since nothing like this had resulted from previous instances where the foam had come sour. In the beginning NASA was faced with a tight budget given to them by the go vernment. This budget was large enough to build a state of the art air craft but wasnt enough to develop an escape ashes that might of proving to be useful in this case. The culture of NASA was a element that created this mistake, The mantra Prove to me that theres something wrong. The chain of command was not equal the low-down guys couldnt voice their opinions and concerns because of the position they held in the organization. Another concern was that they miscalculated the risk of the foam creating any damage just because it never destroyed another shuttle. The facts were well-defined that the foam had the ability to create some damage, and this was apparent in numerous other space shuttle launches. Foam debris was classified as an in-family event- a problem within NASA experience base that was not con boldnessred a safety of flight issue. NASA even knew that foam debris tended to fall off the left bipod ramp and that ten percent of the fights recorded loss foam from this area. Over the years NASA decided to put their concerns of foam damage to the side and called it an acceptable thing to happen during common flight procedures instead of conclusion a way to prevent it. On its first day in orbit NASA engineers came to the conclusion that the foam debris that hit the left wing might have caused severe damage to the shuttle and could prevent it from a safe reentry.