:<font color="yellow">"...he didn't see how you could implement the CAIB report and still have a Shuttle mission to service Hubble."</font><br /><br />I agree that that was his reasoning, though I disagree with how he went about it. At any rate, it was his decision and, for whatever reasons, I respect that. <br /><br /><font color="yellow">"...an administrator <i>should</i> be scared of doing it."</font><br /><br />I don't know about "scared," but certainly every reasonable thing should be done to make human spaceflight as safe as possible. I wouldn't want someone running the show that disregarded reasonable safety, but I wonder if, post-Columbia, Mr. O'Keefe has the stomach for the smallest amount of necessary risk-tasking. It seems to me that making comments like "a strong emotional reluctance about flying humans in space" would make him a poor choice to run a manned spaceflight program of any sort.<br /><br />Hey, I don't mean to disrespect the guy. I think he did what he was sent to NASA to do. However, it seems to me that if you're going to run a successful human spaceflight program you need someone leading NASA who has the "Right Stuff" for the job. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>