The Columbia Shuttle disaster is not about failed technology. It’s about people not stepping back from the processes and procedures to recognize basic failings in what they were doing, and having no repair and rescue capabilities.

Despite the NASA Shuttle being touted as “the most complicated machine ever built” what destroyed the Columbia was the front edge of the wing being hit by foam — a high-density version of the stuff Mailboxes Etc. (aka The UPS Store) crams around the gift you’re sending to Aunt Marge in Dubuque — at over 560 miles per hour.

The foam opened up a crack in the wing. Gases at 3000 degrees got into that crack, destroyed the wing and the Shuttle. Simple stuff. Not rocket science.