] NASA engineers, using personal contacts, asked the US
] military and intelligence agencies to use their spy satellites
] to look at the shuttle's wing. There were three separate
] attempts to ask for spy photos and each time, NASA
] management found out about these requests and ordered the
] military NOT to look at the shuttle. Managers warned the
] engineers to follow procedures.
]
] If the NASA engineers had gotten the images, they would have
] seen the hole, the astronauts could have stayed in the space
] station, another shuttle (Atlantis) could be sent up, and the
] astronauts could return on the second shuttle.
]
] The CAIB report should be read by anyone who works in
] large organizations. It uncovers the blindness in organizational
] decision making, shows how this occurs, and how this can be
] remedied.

[IP] The Columbia space shuttle accident report