Three Strangers Forever Linked, Forever Haunted by Questions That Still Follow Columbia

AP via TBO ^ | January 31,2004 | Marcia Dunn

[Gracey]

That's why I admire Dittemore. Not because he was the best technical manager of operations he could possibly be. But because when the thousands of people he was responsible for each shared a piece of the blame, when each felt the same wrenching in their hearts that Dittemore showed the world, when each was finding it hard to go on about their business, Dittemore took that blame away from them and carried it himself.

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You couldn't have described Ron Dittemore more clearly. How did you know? I know him personally.... worked for him, talked to him at the memorial. He's a very decent guy, with a warm heart and a soul. He was one of the more approachable managers. The culture at NASA was not conducive to making waves, especially under George Abbey as CD. I believe management had changed not too long before the accident.

But I'm still curious... how are you able to "read" Ron so well. You're amazing.

[Gracey]

You shared your personal and professional grief with us, and your nation owes you a huge debt for taking more than your share of the responsibility.

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Ron IS a fine and decent person, more so that many at NASA. He would have a tear in his eye if he read your words. You read him well.

[FreeTheHostages]

While so many of us remember Ron Dittemore's incredulity at facing the possibilty that a suitcase of politically correct insulation material had breeched an airframe subject to more scrutiny and real-world testing than any flying machine in our history, I also remember his openness and patience, without condecension, in those press conferences immediately after the disaster.

As a good engineer and scientist, no matter how disbelieving, he accepted the cause and discarded all the other possibilities that lead to the death of close friends whose lives he accepted as his responsibility.

I agree with that. Well written. But it was his fault, nonetheless. He was part of the command and control that stopped the spy satellite from looking: that part is pretty blameworthy, and blame you have to do in order to learn and correct for next time. But the blame's shared with a lot of people. Including the fault of everyone who underfunds NASA or advocates that we do so -- you can't send humans out into space with these very tight budgets and just hope for the best.

[Darksheare]

"Why didn't the hair stand up on your neck?" he asks himself.

Probably due to professional arrogance, and the thinking that "it's only foam, what could it possibly do?"
Hindsight is always 20/20, and thinking back on it, I bet they'd LOVE to be able to do it over and have the KH-11 take a look at Columbia's belly.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

How did this guy get a bad rap? He gets to go home every night to his family. If anybody got a bad rap, it's the families of the astronauts that were killed. Dittemore's quick dismissal of the actual cause of the accident shows that he never should have had his job in the first place. I hope he can live with it because the astronauts didn't.

[Professional Engineer]

I saw the smoke trails left across the sky that morning. I didn't see the breakup itself, I saw inside voting. I'm not sure if the was a blessing or not.

[Prospero]

Actually, O'Keefe said, during an informal news conference on the night of Opportunity's bounce-down, had there been real-time consensus of the actual danger - the terminal danger - that Columbia was in, they would have rolled out Endeavor and, although unprecedented and unplanned and, therefore, dangerous they would have changed launch vectors and performed a rescue mission.

Imagine the activity at the Vehicle Assembly Building as they removed ISS components and rolled out a rendevous mission in 21 days.

Alas, having one vector - to the ISS - and a backup bird ready to roll out will be the norm for what remains of the Shuttle's mission. (One, among many reasons the Hubble will not be serviced, at least as it was in the past).

Alas, had they had better, real-time down-range launch cameras, they would have had time to Abort to Spain or Morocco - something they have planned for since the beginning and have never actually had to perform.

Alas, alas. Quoth Harlow Shapley - "Through Rugged Ways to the Stars."

[Prospero]

"The need for assigning blame in the aftermath of death is a feature of our culture"

A feature of every culture, I suppose. Doesn't mean I, too, do not share some blame, as an American - even one who publically questioned the systemic flaws of the Shuttle from the beginning, urged rational mission and vision, and still wished each mission Godspeed.

Perhaps I could have cried louder or spoken out more often.

One of the few flaws in our system of government and in funding is that it is not friendly to long-term planning.

[Prospero]

T meant it when I said my family, friends, and myself owe Ron a great debt. I latched onto his every word during those first, dark days. Columbia came apart nearly overhead of my hometown.

His was a voice of clarity and reason, and the gut-wrenching grief he worked through on our behalf and on behalf of the Agency during those conferences was, and still is, sincerely appreciated.

I have tried to send him a message telling him how much I appreciated what he did for all of us at that moment.

If you ever get the chance, I would deeply appreciate also your forwarding my heartfelt good wishes and gratitude.

[Gracey]

Thanks for sharing this Phil. HOw did you find it?

[Phil V.]

Prospero gave me a heads up and a ping request.

[af_vet_rr]

Dittemore was the embodiment of a defective culture that not only didn't see the signs they should have seen, but actively denied that they could have been seen. This is a poisonous culture, and must be rooted out. One of the most defective things about "homeland security" is the presistent official line that 9/11 "could not have been foreseen" in the face of such obvious precedent as Project Bojinka.

Couldn't agree more. I've been tired of hearing the "9/11 was not predictable" mantra from day one. We've known since '93 that certain people in a certain part of the world were willing to goto long lengths to kill Americans. All the pieces of the puzzle were there, just the agencies involved (FBI, CIA, DoD, INS, etc.) didn't want to bother themselves putting them together.

It's the same with NASA, only in this case, I hold NASA only partially to blame - I blame the accountants, and those in Congress for turning a small, efficient vehicle that does two or three tasks very well into a large vehicle that tries to do everything and doesn't do it well.

From the early 1970s (around Nixon's presidency) when the Shuttle went from being something to move people and supplies into and out of orbit, into something that does a little bit of everything and makes NASA/the government money, it's been clear where things are going. All the accountants (both federal and congressional) were excited that by launching a commercial satellite or two everytime the Shuttle went up, the missions would pay for themselves. Aerospace companies back then were looking at getting in on the commercial satellite business, and if things had been more in the hands of engineers, they would have not integrated commercial/civilian, non-NASA/DoD launches into the scheme of things.

We need to get NASA out of the orbital trucking business to start with. There are plenty of American companies interested in launching satellites, and with the X Prize competition heating up, there should be even more reason to get NASA out of that. Have NASA concentrate on pure science and exploration. The program will pay for itself through spinoffs and the knowledge gained.

I would love to see a true "space plane" that can be turned around quickly, and that isn't nearly as complex as the Shuttle - that just carries people and supplies (food, water, instruments) into orbit. I like the idea of bringing back the Saturns and capsules and using them for heavy launches.

I know people that would mock using the Saturns and even capsules because it's 2004, but the technology is proven and reliable and efficient.

[HardStarboard]

Off topic of the Columbia "foam" disaster but another environmental screw up happend years ago (1988?) in Seattle.

Engineers were disassembling the "floating bridge" to
replace it with a new one - the bridge was made of huge "pontoons" about 400 feet long and 4 lanes wide.

Normally rain water dropping on the bridge went into drains and over the side into Lake Waashington. The environmentalists were wconcerned (hysterical?) that concrete dust from cutting the sections would be washed overboard and pollute the lake bottom....300' down.

So the over-the-side drains were plugged, and rainwater
was allowed wash the concrete debris down the entrance holes
to the pontoon interiors - tanker trucks would be brought
in to haul the water away periodically.

Well....we had this huge storm - the pontoons filled to the point that the cables that anchor the pontoons to the bottom became slack - the high wind of the storm snapped the slack cables and the bridge broke up and 90% of it
sank to the bottom.

Environmentalists make very poor engineers!

[snopercod]

Alas, having one vector - to the ISS - and a backup bird ready to roll out will be the norm for what remains of the Shuttle's mission.

I had not heard that KSC had any plans for a "backup bird", although the need for one is obvious to the most casual observer.

When I worked there and was in a position to devise a plan like that (I was an OTC), nobody was interested. Not in USA. Not in NASA.

I regret that I didn't try harder, but I was already on the "$hit list" for reasons that don't much matter any more.

The "We've never done it that way before" mentality was universal at KSC. Too damn bad. I quit.

[XBob]

re 34 - from #1 - "But ever since Laurel Clark and six other astronauts perished aboard Columbia, he feels more like an outsider as he pushes for cultural change within an agency that he sadly believes does not have what it takes to put humans on the moon or Mars. "

He's sort of slow. A number of us figured that out a long time ago, that NASA no longer has the 'right stuff'.

[XBob]

1-"...NASA's bizarre culture evolved - not just in its approach to safety issues but its lack of curiosity. "

NASA's organizational culture prohibits 'inquiring minds'.

[XBob]

2-well put "Dittemore was the embodiment of a defective culture that not only didn't see the signs they should have seen, but actively denied that they could have been seen. This is a poisonous culture, and must be rooted out. "