Understand the type of organization NASA is. First, accountability is everything. It's not that there are big internal political struggles (there are), but more importantly accountability is required for high safety. We aren't talking about a 10 person startup where a bad commit to production takes down a site for a few hours. We're talking about people's lives, careers, and the safety of millions of people that could be negatively affected by a crash or explosion.
When he talks about it being their fault, it's not that those engineers are being singled out for punishment and derision. They had to find out where the problem existed that led to the loss of Columbia, and after extremely thorough testing they believed it existed with the foam team. It's simply a matter of finding where a problem is and doing everything you can to fix it.
So it's not a personal, vindictive "your fault", its an impersonal "the problem is here, lets fix it".
When he talks about it being their fault, it's not that those engineers are being singled out for punishment and derision. They had to find out where the problem existed that led to the loss of Columbia, and after extremely thorough testing they believed it existed with the foam team. It's simply a matter of finding where a problem is and doing everything you can to fix it.
So it's not a personal, vindictive "your fault", its an impersonal "the problem is here, lets fix it".