I apologize for the political tone of this post and the last one, but I believe Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt has made a great point here.

First, for background: Harrison Schmitt was the second to last man to leave the surface of the moon, and the first true scientist among the lunar-landing astronauts (he was a geologist by training, rather than a test pilot).

Here's an excerpt:

The response after an oxygen tank explosion in the Apollo 13 spacecraft on its way to the Moon illustrates how complex technical accidents should be handled. It stands in sharp contrast to the Gulf fiasco. Solve the problem first; then investigate objectively; apply the lessons; and then, if absolutely necessary, worry about responsibility.

Nothing in the government’s response to the blowout explosion on the Deepwater Horizon and its aftermath bears any resemblance to the response to the Apollo 13 situation by NASA and its mission control team at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.

Gene Kranz and his Apollo 13 flight controllers and engineers worked on the assumption that “failure was not an option.” In contrast, President Obama and those claiming to have been on top of the Gulf oil spill situation “from day one” assumed that failure is an option and, indeed, may want BP to fail for their own ideological reasons. Whatever their motives, the president and his cabinet officers, without any experience in real-world management of anything major, much less a crisis, have no idea how to deal with a situation as technically complex as the Gulf oil spill.

It has been left to BP engineers and managers and to Gulf state officials to respond as best they can in a regulatory environment that is politically charged, incompetent, fearful, and hesitant. Rather than allowing BP to stay focused only on solving the problems of the spill, Attorney General Holder now has launched a civil and criminal investigation!

I think he has a great point (though I don't think I agree with his charge that some in the current administration "may want BP to fail for their own ideological reasons"). I've read everything I can get my hands on about NASA history, and in particular the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. On this point Schmitt is exactly right: NASA endured two huge disasters during the Apollo project. The first was the terrible fire on Apollo 1 that claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. The second was the "successful failure" of Apollo 13 in which, thankfully, Lovell, Haise and Swigert returned to earth in one piece. In both instances, job #1 was to fix the problem. It really frustrates me that, in the midst of a huge environmental and human tragedy such as the out of control BP gusher, the Government is already diverting attention and resources by spouting threats.

I hate politics. Fix the problem. Then, once it's fixed, feel free to roll heads.