Magnersdrinker,
My recollection of the shuttle foam issue is that the engineers and risk
analysts took the issue very seriously, but the higher management
took the view that it had always been alright in the past so it would be
alright again. I'm sure there is a report of a few thousand pages
saying that (maybe in such a way as to protect the guilty and punish
the innocent). Also a lot on nonsense about 'nothing to be done to fix it',
but after the Columbia tragedy indeed something could be done.
regards, john