Resources about NASA culture

This is taking me longer than I wanted.  I have said that NASA's civil servant culture (from the Contractor position) has looked like one of the best places for women to work. That's actually one of the reasons I want to work there. So I'm going to start out with some general comments about organization culture from my management coursework, and then provide links to some of the literature and stories that already exist and/or are coming soon.

The culture of any organization is influenced by the structure, the corporate / institutional culture, the work-group culture, the geographically local surrounding culture, and customer and supplier culture.  All of these, together, create subtle differences in individual experience. Houston is different from Huntsville, Boeing is different from Lockheed Martin.

There is a precedence for former engineers who have become writers, speakers, including Homer Hickam himself. I am considering that path, as I've seen openings and opportunities to write... but I am not ready to give up on my technical career yet.

For today, I'm going to point to existing resources:

1. NASA culture has been studied and discussed on at least two major occasions:

• The Rogers Commission report on the Challenger investigation, which focuses on the culture at Marshall Space Flight Center and Thiokol (now ATK).
• The Columbia Accident Investigation Board report, which focuses on the interaction between Johnson Space Center, NASA Headquarters, and The Boeing Company.

Additionally, the key book on the Challenger accident is Diane Vaughn's The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA

For those who wonder what marginalization vs. inclusion of diversity have to do with Safety, there is research showing a relationship.

2. There have been many books on the history of the U.S. space program:

While much of the literature focuses on the Apollo program, space shuttle and International Space Station non-fiction is also being published.

• A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
• This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age (Modern Library Paperbacks)
• Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
• etc., etc., etc. Most of the literature I've read continues to focus on the experience of male leaders in the space industry.

And then there's the rest of the story:

• The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight
• I haven't read this yet.
• Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
• I haven't read this yet.
• Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space
• I own a copy of this, I greatly enjoyed it. She discusses the culture change at NASA in the 1970s that helped create the environment I observed in the 21st century.
• Coming soon, Marianne Dyson's memoir on women in Shuttle Mission Control
• Dr. Mae Jemison's website and astronaut biography
• Guion Bluford's astronaut biography
• Sally Ride's obituary, and an interview by HRC with Tam O'Shaughnessy

Updated 4/2/2015 to add:

• We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program
• Science Friday: NASA and Integration During the Civil Rights Movement
• Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr.
• Ed Dwight

Update 4/8/2015:

• John Herrington

Update 6/24/2015:

• Fast Company: HOW NASA BROKE THE GENDER BARRIER IN STEM