NASA: Mission Implausible;The Space Program's Biggest Problem Is Deciding What to Do From: The Washington Post | Date: November 4, 1990| Author: Kathy Sawyer | Copyright (null) The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post.Copyright information

THE U.S. SPACE AGENCY has built its reputation by doing the impossible. But it has been spread so thin for years that sometimes it has trouble doing the merely necessary. That's what happened this summer.

In both the Hubble Space Telescope and the space shuttle programs, the fancy stuff-the complex software and high-performance machinery that made each unprecedented-is working pretty well. The problems that caused a furor over the past few months were of the mundane sort. Still, they...