NASA, why?

What is happening to the Nasa Space Shuttle Discovery is the least to say weird. When NASA started the space program over 50 years ago, it seemed that it knew what it needed to do. The leaders of this great organization had vision, know how, means and most important they had leadership that set a business model, goals and structure to get the job done. What went wrong? Maybe the lack of competition made the people there go easy on the quality of the program, Russia is no more a viable competitor, Asia and Europe lag behind and most important no one has a similar shuttle program. To send a shuttle full of human beings, qualified scientists to space knowing that it is not perfect is a scandal. When it comes to such missions, everything must be examined, reexamined and perfect. On earth maybe we can tolerate imperfection, but out there, in the outer space, everything must be perfect. Instead of focusing on the mission, we are now focusing on how to repair the shuttle and prevent it from exploding in the space or when it comes down and enter the earth. This is a shame. It's a shame that we were better when we first sent Columbia to space and after over 20 years we are worse. Why? Maybe because of the reasons I stated above, probably the lack of leadership. We have political appointees that worry about cutting cost and taking risks rather than a methodological approach to our mission. Fix the problems at NASA by having experienced visionary leaders who have the knowledge or can acquire it. Leaders who can set the tone and the stage for a great space program. Kick out the short cuts and mediocrity from the program. Please review the Busboys article in my site for related information.