Echoes of Columbia

‘Climate of fear’ returns to NASA, watchdog says, Washington Times

“The Columbia board said people were afraid to speak out — in other words — management problems,” Mr. Cowing said. “So what is Griffin doing? Getting rid of people running the Return to Flight program. I see echoes of Columbia, he is re-creating stress on people who are already doing the most stressful jobs of their careers.”

Editor’s note: A point of slight clarification. Mike Griffin, of course, should be able to modify his staff as he sees fit so as to facilitate his management of the agency. No one – including those reassigned – would argue with that – and these people (SESers) clearly knew the risks when they took the leap. But there is a humane way to reassign people and then there is the approach being taken by Griffin in a number of instances wherein the approach borders upon punitive and is tantamount to firing people in slow motion.