Lesson Learned

ASA will begin naming "a few hundred" engineers soon who will constitute the Independent. Technical Authority (ITA) recommended by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to pro- vide an effective check and balance on space programs for safety. Within the next month, the directors of Johnson and Kennedy space centers will name "a couple of dozen at each place" to backstop human spaceflight engineers, according to Theron M. Bradley, Jr., NASA chief engineer. By the time the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the ITA should be fully staffed across the agency, with a system of "warrants" delineating who is an expert in what. Overseeing the whole organization