Friday, June 30, 2006
What's It To You?
NASA has refused to produce Flight Readiness Review documents in response to Florida Today's FOIA request. For the last launch, they produced them. For this launch, they said, "Mind your own bees wax!"
For good reason, too. Last time Florida Today got ahold of such documents, they raised such a hue and cry that STS-114 never left the pad, the shuttle program shut down and everyone who worked on the program was embarrassed and unemployed. No, wait, that's not right. They got the documents, the shuttle took off, the foam problem that was supposedly solved proved to be ongoing and NASA was embarrassed and one mistake closer to complete shutdown of the whole program.
Hmm. So maybe the reason is NASA wants to protect the open-ness of their internal deliberations. After all, certainly the chief engineer and the Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance would never give honest opinions if they knew they were going to be public. Oh, wait, those opinions were published all over the place by NASA itself.
Well, then, it must be because hiding the discussions shows how open NASA is now, willing to listen to all points of view. No, that doesn't make any sense either.
OK, there is no good justification for NASA's decision to suddenly start withholding documents. But NASA knows what's best -- let's just trust NASA. Let's just trust NASA people like the Chief Engineer, uh, wait, I mean let's trust NASA people like the Chief of Safety, um, I mean, like former JSC safety team member Charlie Camarda, ok, hold on a second, I'll think of it.
For good reason, too. Last time Florida Today got ahold of such documents, they raised such a hue and cry that STS-114 never left the pad, the shuttle program shut down and everyone who worked on the program was embarrassed and unemployed. No, wait, that's not right. They got the documents, the shuttle took off, the foam problem that was supposedly solved proved to be ongoing and NASA was embarrassed and one mistake closer to complete shutdown of the whole program.
Hmm. So maybe the reason is NASA wants to protect the open-ness of their internal deliberations. After all, certainly the chief engineer and the Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance would never give honest opinions if they knew they were going to be public. Oh, wait, those opinions were published all over the place by NASA itself.
Well, then, it must be because hiding the discussions shows how open NASA is now, willing to listen to all points of view. No, that doesn't make any sense either.
OK, there is no good justification for NASA's decision to suddenly start withholding documents. But NASA knows what's best -- let's just trust NASA. Let's just trust NASA people like the Chief Engineer, uh, wait, I mean let's trust NASA people like the Chief of Safety, um, I mean, like former JSC safety team member Charlie Camarda, ok, hold on a second, I'll think of it.
