"The NASA organizational culture had as much to do with this accident as the foam," the 248-page report said.

Several specific changes in NASA's organizational structure were defined, including creation of an independent technical engineering and evaluation group to ensure the orbiter is as safe to fly as possible.

Reaction from around the nation varied, but was generally supportive of the CAIB's findings and recommendations. However there was a lack of quick promises of the additional funding it will inevitably take to implement all of the CAIB's requirements and observations.

"The next steps for NASA under Sean O'Keefe's leadership must be determined after a thorough review of the entire report, including its recommendations," President George Bush said in a statement released by the White House. "Our journey into space will go on. The work of the crew of the Columbia and the heroic explorers who traveled before them will continue."

U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center, sits on the House Appropriations Committee and said it will take the cooperation of the White House, Congress and the aerospace industry to emerge from the Columbia tragedy with a better space program.

"The onus is now on NASA to take these recommendations to heart," Weldon said. "It is, however, the duty of Congress to provide oversight and financial assistance where needed to aid NASA in being able to operate the human spaceflight enterprise in a safer and more robust fashion."

Support for the report's findings came from the National Space Society (NSS), a Washington-based space advocacy group that also sought Tuesday to remind the inside-the-beltway crowd of the nation's capitol that it will take more money from the White House and Congress to fix NASA, get flying again and move on with new programs.

"We are a nation of explorers, and a bold new vision of the exploration of space will be welcomed by the American public and our international partners," NSS director Brian Chase said in a statement. "No society has ever gone wrong opening up the frontier, and we shouldn't stop now."

All that said, the CAIB would just like to make sure NASA doesn't file their report next to the Apollo 1 and Challenger reports and forget about it after a couple of years. That would be a travesty to the memory of the fallen astronauts, CAIB officials said.

"The loss of their lives had better make a difference or this board wasted its time," said CAIB chairman Harold Gehman, a retired Navy Admiral.

Not to worry, NASA's top manager said.

In his remarks to agency employees, broadcast nationwide on NASA TV, O'Keefe promised full cooperation and that, for the sake of the Columbia astronaut's survivors, shuttles will fly again.

"We must be as resolute and as courageous in our efforts as the families have been in working through this horrible tragedy," O'Keefe said. "How we respond to the days, weeks and months ahead will matter as much as what we decide to do, and whether it will be a lasting change."

O'Keefe recalled the words of legendary flight director Gene Kranz, who when speaking of the 1967 Apollo 1 fire said: "We were the cause. We were not ready. We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did."

O'Keefe spoke of how Kranz lectured his flight controllers, tasking them to go back to their offices and write the words "tough" and "competent" on their blackboards, and to never erase those words.

"I would suggest that we indeed also adopt the principles of tough and competent, and each day, when we enter, and we do what we do throughout this agency, every single one of us, we ought to be reminded of the price paid by Husband, McCool, Anderson, Clark, Chawla, Brown and Ramon. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of NASA, and we should adopt it that way," O'Keefe said.

"Let's go to work."