Washington: In a strong indictment, investigators probing the Columbia shuttle disaster on August 26 blamed National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) flawed work culture coupled with shortage of funds and an insufficient safety programme for the mishap that killed Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts on February 1, 2003.

Columbia Accident Investigation Board, set up immediately after the space disaster, presented its 248- page report on the accident before the US Congress.

"The board strongly believes that if these persistent, systemic flaws are not resolved, the scene is set for another accident," the report said.

Very little has improved in the space agency's approach towards safety since the 1986 Challenger disaster that also killed seven astronauts, the report said.

Blaming the safety programme of the space agency, the report said that NASA's mission managers had fell into a habit of accepting as normal some flaws in the shuttle system.

"These repeating patterns mean that flawed practices embedded in NASA's organisational system continued for 20 years and made substantial contributions to both accidents," the report said.

PTI