In a strong indictment, investigators probing the Columbia shuttle disaster on Tuesday blamed NASA's flawed work culture coupled with shortage of funds and an insufficient safety programme for the mishap that killed Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts on February 1 this year.
Columbia Accident Investigation Board, set up immediately after the space disaster, presented its 248-page report on the accident before the US Congress.
"The board strongly believes that if these persistent, systemic flaws are not resolved, the scene is set for another accident," the report said.
Very little has improved in the space agency's approach towards safety since the 1986 Challenger disaster that also killed seven astronauts, the report said.
Blaming the safety programme of the space agency, the report said that NASA's mission managers had fell into a habit of accepting as normal some flaws in the shuttle system.
"These repeating patterns mean that flawed practices embedded in NASA's organisational system continued for 20 years and made substantial contributions to both accidents," the report said.
NASA managers missed several opportunities to assess possible damage to the Columbia's heat shield from after foam tiles hit the left wing causing a puncture that proved to be fatal.
Such insulation strikes had occurred on previous missions and agency officials had come to view them as an acceptable abnormality that posed no safety risk.
This same attitude resulted in the lack of interest in getting photographs of the damage caused to the left wing using spy satellites, it said.
In a strong indictment of the NASA management, the investigators reported that the agency's work culture discouraged dissenting views on safety issues.
The 'ineffective leadership' at the agency 'failed to fulfil the implicit contract to do whatever is possible to ensure the safety of the crew'.
"The White House, Congress and NASA leadership exerted constant pressure to reduce or at least freeze operating costs (for the space shuttle)," the report said.
"As a result, safety and support upgrades were delayed or deferred, and Shuttle infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate," it added.
The CAIB has made 29 recommendations, including changes the space agency must make to start space flights again and changes to alter the NASA work culture.
The board also blamed the Congress and the White House for making less budgetary allocations to NASA, which affected its purchasing power.
The disaster occurred due to a puncture in the spacecraft's left wing that sent plasma and hot gases inside, melting the wings and tearing the shuttle apart as it entered the Earth's atmosphere, the report said.
The said the foam that broke away from Columbia's external fuel tank 81-seconds after lift-off on January 16 this year made a breach in the shuttle's left wing that proved to be fatal.
Superheated air penetrated the wing and melted it from the inside, causing the spacecraft to break apart and scattering debris over parts of the states of Texas and Louisiana.
The crew died within seconds after Mission Control lost signals from the shuttle, the report said.
"The destruction of the crew module took place over a period of 24 seconds beginning at an altitude of approximately 140,000 feet," the report said.
The report attributed the death of the crew to trauma and loss of oxygen.
