Abstract :
Can NASA learn from the mismanagement of the International Space Station? That is what readers will wonder after reading this book by Donald A. Beattie, a retired senior manager at NASA, who was there when the station was conceived and born. The reports, memos, transcripts, budgets, and memoirs he gathers in the book, most of them never published before, chronicle the surges, droughts, and dams that characterized the funding of the project. He also delves into the management of technological risk and crew safety. Despite its history, Beattie remains committed to the U.S. space program and he offers recommendations for doing better.