NASA Administrator Bill Nelson Talks about Challenger and Columbia

all right next question from the phones Kristen Fischer from CNN uh thank you my question is also for Senator Nelson Senator uh you were a member of the Congressional committee that investigated the Challenger accident you were a senator when Colombia happened how much did that experience influence your personal decision today thank you well very much um it has affected the decision to today by this Collective group and all of those that participated in the flight test Readiness review this morning uh it is a trying to turn around the culture that first led to the loss of Challenger and then led to the loss of Colombia where obvious mistakes were not being brought forth for example uh give you uh specifics going back to the loss of Challenger even the engineers in Utah in Morton thol were begging their management not to launch because of the cold weather and that information never got up and that was happening on the very night before the launch the next morning another example on Colombia uh astronauts would get through with their flights and they'd inspect the Orbiter and they as a matter of fact uh my commander Hoot Gibson said it he he'd look at subsequent flights and he would uh look like that a shotgun had been shot on the delicate C tiles because of so much of the foam shedding off of the external tank uh but there was a culture that did not bring that information up to the decision makers so NASA ever since has tried very hard to bring about an atmosphere in which people are encouraged to step forward and speak their minds and I think uh right today is a good example of that