The L.A. Times ran a six-part story this week about the Columbia tragedy.

Reading this story, it strikes me that there are just so many things wrong with how the space shuttle program has been handled...right from the original design of the craft...that it just hurts my stomach, like someone has repeatedly punched me in the gut.

What if the top management of the Shuttle Program had let the subordinate engineers continue their line of questioning? What if they had been allowed to investigate their concerns about that foam that flew off and hit the left wing? What if this program (like so many other government projects/programs) wasn't smothered by overly-territorial senior management?

What if those seven astronauts didn't have to die?

According to the story, eleven of the managers involved in the shuttle program were demoted, reassigned or took early retirement as a result of the investigation.

What remains to be seen, though, is whether or not NASA has really fixed what was wrong. Territoriality and lack of accountability in the executive wing is always bad for business. In a program as important--and delicate--as this, it is fatal. I hope that the lessons have been learned, that they will be applied, and that those seven astronauts did not die in vain.