PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA Administrator Dan Goldin is taking the blame for last year's botched Mars missions, saying he pushed too hard, cut too much and made it impossible for spacecraft managers to succeed.
But Goldin said he will not abandon the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's "faster, better, cheaper" approach. Mission managers will get enough money and people to do the job, but there won't be a return to the days of big, expensive spacecraft."We're going to make sure they have adequate resources, but we're not going to let the pendulum swing all the way back," he told employees of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter were managed.
Goldin visited the lab Wednesday, a day after two reports were released on the recent Mars fiasco. They found mismanagement, unrealistic expectations and anemic funding were to blame as much as the mistakes that actually doomed the missions.
"In my effort to empower people, I pushed too hard," Goldin said.
On the Net: NASA: www.nasa.gov
Jet Propulsion Laboratory: www.jpl.nasa.gov
Mars Polar Lander: marslander.jpl.nasa.gov