Bureaucracy trumps engineering . . . and humanity

Colby Cosh has strong opinions on the rather disturbing information coming out of NASA:

It's a shocking disaster. And what made it more shocking were the continual protestations from Michael Griffin and Bill Parsons that Discovery's current mission was a "test flight" in which major anomalies were anticipated. Was this phrase used freely when the crew of STS-114 — who, for the moment, seem to have dodged a large cream-coloured bullet made out of synthetic insulation — was being recruited? The original test flights of the space shuttle were conducted with crews as small as two members. Question for NASA: why are there five men and two women aboard a spacecraft whose engineering properties were apparently being "tested" for fundamental survivability?

I'm more than upset by the news that the original problem which caused the loss of Columbia has still not been resolved. I'm utterly appalled that the bureaucracy at NASA seems to have decided to deliberately risk the lives of the crew of Discovery in spite of the lack of resolution of that critical problem.

I sure hope that Burt Rutan and company can ready a rescue flight to the space station ASAP: I think we need 'em urgently.