preview

Nas The Space Shuttle Columbia

Better Essays
Open Document

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was just coming in for re-entry after being in space for almost a month, when it had spontaneously exploded over Texas. The seven crew members on the shuttle had lost their lives and an unforgettable image is burned into the memory of the American people. I will be discussing mainly about how USA Today has covered the disaster and provide examples as to how the agency makes it seem as though NASA was the one responsible for the disaster and how the news agency tries to make it seem as though NASA wasn’t concerned about the safety of its employees. I will also provide a small summary about each article that I mention.
For the first article, titled “A year after Columbia, weaknesses remain at NASA” by Alcestis "Cooky" Oberg of USA Today, the author writes that NASA has not learned from its past mistakes with the Columbia disaster and continue to put people in danger. This is an exaggeration by USA Today in an effort to demote the image of NASA to the public. In the beginning paragraph of the article, the author writes “We always knew that overconfidence, carelessness and flawed decision-making by NASA leaders were recipes for doom.” This is prove that the writer is trying to make NASA look guilty by exaggerating the issue. Another aspect the author mentions is that “In other words, there are few clear signs that our space program is leaving past weaknesses behind, even after this second kick of a mule.” What this means is that

Get Access