In the book, she describes NASA culture as “reminiscent of the forts boys built and filled with cigarettes and girlie magazines.” She also writes of a persistent toxic male culture still prevalent at NASA and in the space community at large, writing that she and other women were subjected to misogynistic, sexist remarks and insults. The result was a years-long setback for the space agency, according to Garver, who details in her new book a system of government waste and inefficiency during her years at NASA. Garver writes that she pressed NASA to work with the private sector to embrace what she saw as a new era of space exploration - a vision she says was eventually accepted but only after relentless infighting. The agency fought bitterly over what programs to pursue or cancel and what missions to fund. The resistance held the space agency and the future of space exploration back, according to Garver. It is pretty darn expensive and inconvenient to lose a KH-11, to lose a KH-9, to lose three Intruders (NOSS), to lose a launchpad, to lose a test stand and to suffer 7 years of delay to the same technology that also killed seven astronauts in early 1986.Instead, Garver writes in her new book “Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age,” she encountered stiff pushback from lawmakers who wanted to keep existing space programs that benefited companies who contract with NASA. One of those is the history of segmented SRM mishaps during the Titan program. The universal "No" she got, with regards to the use of SLS for DoD and NRO launches, is the result of several factors. As Jim pointed out in a previous post: Lori Garver spoke those in DoD and NRO that really mattered. Industry, DoD and NRO had learned their lessons and never again did NSS launch vehicles sport large segmented solids. By the time Tital IVB finally came online with those SRMUs, the EELV selection process was already well underway. The result was that the replacement motors ended up being seven years late. The very first one to be test fired exploded one second after ignition and required a full re-design. But the replacement motors from Hercules (SRMU) turned out to be complete disasters initially. The old CSD segmented SRMs for Titan were pesky and caused the loss both 34D-9 and 41-11. That alternate failure scenario lay the blame, for the core engines not starting, not with a leaking oxidizer tank, but with a SRB exhaust gas leak, doing critical damage to the core stage engines. Some of the members of the investigative team suggested an alternate failure scenario, which was even supported by some physical evidence, but in the end it was ignored. Due to a lack of telemetry, lack of proper ascent visual tracking and a failure of the US Navy to salvage booster wreckage from the Pacific, the officially established cause was mostly guesswork and never cleared any major part of the SRBs as possible culprits. But a majority of the investigative team was unsatisfied by the verdict. The cause of the 34D-7 failure was not related to the SRBs. And after the Titan 34/Titan IV experience, DoD and NRO were IMO likely less than enthusiastic to find out if those newer, bigger segmented solids would do them any good. The solids of SLS were therfore complete unknowns to DoD and NRO. SLS has 5 segment boosters, not the shuttle heritage 4 segment boosters. What also did not help is that DIRECT was never actually implemented, regardless of how much some people consider SLS to be Jupiter 24X. By the time Garver spoke to Sapp, the TO issues of Ares I had been the "talk of the town" just a few years earlier (between 20). It was her job, along with that of Bolden, to "sell" SLS to others than just NASA. And that fits perfectly because SLS was publically presented by Nelson and Bolden in 2012, while Lori Garver was still deputy admin. Betty Sapp, who Lori spoke to, was appointed NRO director in 2012, just a few years after DIRECT, and Ares I with all of its TO issues, had gone the way of the dinosaurs. DIRECT happened in the 2006 - 2010 timeframe.
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