“NASA owes it to the citizens from whom it asks support to be frank, honest and informative, so that these citizens can make the wisest decisions for the use of their limited resources. For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”
This was the opinion of Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, writing in the report into the explosion of space shuttle Challenger in 1986. He exposed NASA as an organisation in which secrecy and poor internal communications had directly contributed to the disaster. It has taken 18 years and another disaster, but NASA…
