Report: NASA Lags on Shuttle Return-To-Flight Plans

Yahoo News ^ | 1/20/04 | Deborah Zabarenko - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

Nearly a year after the Columbia disaster, NASA (news - web sites) is only beginning the sweeping changes recommended as conditions for the space shuttles' return to flight, an independent task group reported on Tuesday.

"Detailed plans for many of the recommendations have not been forthcoming," the group said in an interim report. "NASA has not been timely in some of their responses to task group requests for information."

The independent panel, called the Return to Flight Task Group, was charged with monitoring NASA's progress in complying with recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which probed the shuttle's fatal Feb. 1, 2003, disintegration over Texas. All seven astronauts were killed.

The recommendations went beyond the specific cause of the tragedy -- falling insulation foam struck the left wing during liftoff, damaging the ship and allowing superheated gas to get in and tear Columbia apart on re-entry -- to what it called a "broken safety culture."

Among other things, the board recommended that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration change the way it monitors safety if the three grounded space shuttles are to fly again.

The task group, headed by former shuttle commander Richard Covey and Apollo mission commander Thomas Stafford, reported that NASA's plan to create a central authority responsible for safety was "missing critical elements" and its implementation was "under way, but incomplete."

The report also found that schedule pressure had become a "destructive force" at NASA, and that plans to correct this were "in development."

The board also recommended a detailed plan for organizational change at NASA, but the interim report found this plan "undeveloped."

The report was released less than a week after President Bush (news - web sites) announced plans to send humans back to the moon by 2020 and eventually to Mars.

Bush pledged to add $1 billion to the space agency's budget over the next five years to help achieve these goals.

In the wake of this announcement, NASA reorganized some of its top management to focus on this exploration initiative, and decided not to send a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites), effectively dooming the orbiting observatory.

The task group's interim report is available online at http://returntoflight.org .

[NormsRevenge]

Ping

[Rockitz]

I'm working on an RTF task.

[ambrose]

The Space Program being run like it were the DMV.. Whatever happened to that "can do" spirit of the 1960s?

[NormsRevenge]

It looks like 2005 at this rate for a RTF of the shuttles.

[hedgetrimmer]

Whatever happened to that "can do" spirit of the 1960s?

Its been outsourced to the lowest bidder.

[XBob]

Thanks for the ping NR - and here's a snippet from an e-mail note to me from KSC:

"KSC had a "town" meeting and told everyone work would go on. last disaster when they laid everyone off was a disaster so people will not get laid off and the shuttle will come back on line. After 2010 there will be work because we will get the new launch vehicle.

we will also try to get the manufacturing (fat chance) of the new launch vehicle."

===
FWIW - most current info.

[bonesmccoy]

I previously posted a statement that I did not believe that the shuttle would be flying in 2004.

I stand by that decision.

The foam fix must be installed. I doubt that it has been.

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks for the KSC info.

[XBob]

4 - "The Space Program being run like it were the DMV.. Whatever happened to that "can do" spirit of the 1960s?"

You noticed? LOL - It stayed in the 60's, with a tiny overlap into the 70's.

[XBob]

8 - "The foam fix must be installed. I doubt that it has been."

Where did i miss that, that they are actually going to 'fix' the foam?

[bonesmccoy]

miss it?

Heck, we've been waiting for one year and there has been no statement on how they are going to fix it yet.

That's why I don't believe the vehicle is flying this year.

[Fitzcarraldo]

How many shuttle flights will be required to complete the station?

[Fitzcarraldo]

decided not to send a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites), effectively dooming the orbiting observatory.

By only flying to the ISS from now on, I think NASA hopes to reduce RTF costs even more. Columbia was the designated shuttle for Hubble repair and free flying work. Now, however, a way needs to be found to control the reentry of Hubble.

[Prime Choice]

The Space Program being run like it were the DMV.. Whatever happened to that "can do" spirit of the 1960s?

It's alive and well, thank you. Whatever happened to the common sense of the 1950s?

You've already stated that you do not work for NASA. If you think you can do a better job, I sincerely encourage you to go to your nearest center and submit your resumé.

I for one have long since tired of the blithering nonsense from armchair rocket scientists.

[Prime Choice]

How many shuttle flights will be required to complete the station?

At last estimate, the ISS was scheduled to be completed by 2008. But then we lost Columbia and all further STS missions have been grounded. Considering the delays and the loss of Spacehab, we may not see completion of the ISS until 2010 or 2012.

Even though I've been a long-time champion of the STS, it pains me to say that I think now is the time to retire the remaining fleet and return to disposable rockets and free-fall, parachute descent into water return. The latter is more cost-effective (about $1000/lb versus the STS rate of $10,000/lb) and has a history of unbroken success.

I originally had hopes that the X-33 or X-34 would be ready for flight by now, but it was not to be. The STS, for all its flaws and associated costs, is the most optimal reusable spacecraft we can make at this time.

[XBob]

12 - "Heck, we've been waiting for one year and there has been no statement on how they are going to fix it yet."

Sorry - I didn't catch that they had an objective to 'fix' the foam. And Only proposed perhaps to redesign the place where the suitcase size block fell off.

[ambrose]

Right, I don't work for NASA, and I am not a scientist.

You've never answered whether you work there or not.

Frankly, I am tired of hearing whining about how we can't do this or can't do that. The same type of people said Columbus couldn't sail around the world because the world is flat.

NASA needs some forward thinking people. The President has set the mission. Anyone at NASA who thinks it is impossible, or believes working on a telescope is more important, should tender their resignations immediately so we don't waste another 30 years of precious time that could have gone towards exploring the cosmos.

[snopercod]

We used to call those meetings "pumping sunshine up our a**es".

The RCC wing leading edges and nose caps were all sent to the vendor for inspection, with an EDD of this fall. So it's hard to see how a shuttle will fly again this year.

Let's recall that thanks to the Gore/Chernomyrdin orbit of the ISS, there are almost zero launch opportunities between November and February.

[XBob]

19 - "Let's recall that thanks to the Gore/Chernomyrdin orbit of the ISS, there are almost zero launch opportunities between November and February."

Yeah, it's something everybody, particularly the media, seems to forget, that thanks to xlinton/gore, we are using an obsolete truck to build a lame space station, in a lame orbit, which has no mission, which is going to fall on our heads as soon as we finish it, but which we will give to the Russians so it will be 'their fault'.