The report, by an independent panel of scientists, attributed the gaffes to a common cause: scientists and engineers simply didn’t have enough time or money to test the equipment properly, and senior managers failed to watch over the projects carefully. The report’s authors raised questions about NASA’s operating credo of “faster, better, cheaper.” The panel was curt in its criticism. “Space missions are a one-strike-and-you’re-out activity,” it warned. The authors served up a new corollary to NASA’s hurry-up doctrine: “If not ready–do not launch.”
In a pep talk to Mars engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, a chastened Administrator Daniel Goldin accepted blame. “I pushed too hard,” he said, “and… stretched the system too thin.” Accordingly, agency officials delayed a Mars launch set for 2001 until 2003 or later, budgeted more money for contingencies and picked a point man to oversee all Mars projects. (Another orbiter mission for 2001 will go ahead as planned.) Meanwhile, Goldin and others believe that when it’s done right, “faster, better, cheaper” remains the space agency’s best policy. That’s good, because NASA shouldn’t look for more funding from Congress. “Everybody’s entitled to one stupid mistake, but now there are two stupid mistakes,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, chair of the House committee that funds NASA, told NEWSWEEK. “Money is definitely not the answer.” Maybe not, but can NASA discover what is?
