Read the case of the Columbia accident (Casamayou 2003, Chandler 2003) and answer the questions below:

1. How did NASA's culture increase the likelihood that an orbiter would be lost?

2. Do you agree with Diane Vaughan that NASA did not learn from the Challenger accident? Why?

3. One implication of the problems at NASA is that the culture of large, specialist organizations is hard to change, would this apply to other public sector organizations in your opinion?