I would like to take exception to the comment about NASA becomming a retirement home.
If you'll check you'll find that NASA is now populated and managed by people too young to remember the lessons of the past.
Bean counters cutting costs at the expense of safety and managers and supervisors making rules for things they haven't personally worked on are the problem.
Has everyone forgotten the first shuttle that lost tiles? Ground based cameras photographed the belly and reliable information was obtained to make a decision to allow the shuttle to land. That technology is still available today and is, in fact, considered out dated. There's better available for less money today.
What happened this time is that a few testosterone riddled mentalities were allowed to make the decision not to invite outside help to get more data. These insecure fools with little more knowledge or experience outside of school and NASA made a decision based on ignorance.
Ever wonder why very few people in NASA have any kind of certification like an A&P or JAA engineer's license? Their mentality is "patch it up, cut to fit, paint to match" and We don't need no stinking A&P.
I'm afraid that the old adage is very true in NASA and the entire industry's case: "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it".
If the commercial airlines were allowed to operate the way NASA does we'd see unimaginable carnage on a daily basis. I got my gray wiskers worrying about things I'd fixed in a hurry. At least I had grayer haired people around to ask for help.
Grow up NASA. When you hire an expert make sure he's done something in the field, not just written a thesis.
