Hello, Matt, and Roy.
-=> MATT MC_CARTHY wrote to ROY J. TELLASON <=-


 RJT> I'd still like to know _who_ it was that decided that there
 RJT> wasn't any need to take a look at it from outside sources
 RJT> (military satellites,  etc.) and _why_.

 MM> I heard a 'story' on one of the media channels shortly after the burnup
 MM> that photos were actually ordered, but "someone higher
up" cancelled
 MM> AFTER the cameras were re-programmed and ready!

One thing I forgot to mention in the other msg to Matt is that the
www.caib.us website now also has the "Working Scenario" which Nasa
released yesterday, which contains a "collection of known facts, events,
timelines, and historical information related to the final flight of
Columbia."  That probably has some interesting info in it.  It totals
12MB of pdf, and is available as a 3-part download.  I started to
download Part 1, but lost connection, and I haven't had time to give
it another try.

In this morning's paper here, retired Admiral Gehman, who heads the
independent CAIB panel, " . . . said that as the board hunkers down to
finish its report, now expected late next month, its members consider
NASA's management failures to be on equal footing with the foam as the
cause of the disaster."

"We've now decided that these things are equal," he said.  "I believe
the way the report's going to characterize these things is we have what
we're now calling either a physical or mechanical failure, and then we
have systemic failures."

I think the board's final report will have a good bit of significant
criticism of the way NASA has been managing the Shuttle program, and
some recommendations for some significant changes.

- - -  JimH.

... Jim, why does everything these days have to be so danged complicated?-Bubba
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