NASA Administrator ignores advice

I thought the new NASA administrator, Michael Griffith, was going to be smarter than this, but he looks like he is following the path of folly already visited previously by NASA leading up to the other two shuttle disasters. Griffith is going to ignore the objections of engineers and safety officers and launch the shuttle anyway:

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, overruling objections from the agency's chief engineer and safety office, cleared the shuttle Discovery for launch July 1 on a mission to service and resupply the international space station.

The story contains a lot of rationalization about "acceptable risk" but the fact is, the general understanding of the engineering concerns is practically nil. Which, for NASA, spells go-for-launch. This is exactly the mindset that led to the previous two shuttle disasters: PR trumps engineering advice. If one more shuttle goes up in smoke, I think you can pretty much kiss NASA and every other scientific mission that depends on the shuttle, like the Hubble telescope, good bye.