Posted on 06/19/2004 7:49:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA (news - web sites) is considering whether it can return its space shuttles to flight without making two safety improvements that have so far proved to be high hurdles for agency engineers, top officials said on Friday.
After the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas last year and killed the seven astronauts aboard, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board drafted a lengthy list of ambitious reforms.
Among other proposals, the board recommended NASA come up with a way to repair damage to the leading edge of a shuttle's wing, such as the kind that doomed Columbia in 2003.
It also said NASA should develop a way to inspect the underside of the shuttles for damage during the second day of flight. Columbia flew for 16 days without the crew or ground controllers knowing of the fatal hole that was out of sight from crew-compartment windows.
NASA engineers are working on a repair kit that could fix a large hole in a shuttle wing's leading edge. They are also trying to build a boom to inspect the orbiter's underside.
The tasks have proved challenging, so the space agency is considering whether it can launch the shuttles without those two upgrades.
Deputy Associate Administrator Michael Kostelnik stressed no decisions have been made.
In any case, NASA is committed to a plan that would supply the International Space Station (news - web sites) with enough food, water and oxygen that a stranded shuttle crew could live there until a rescue shuttle reached them 85 to 90 days later.
The shuttle Discovery is scheduled for launch between March 6 and April 18, 2005, on a mission that will test many improvements made since the loss of the Columbia.
"We will have changed more things on these vehicles than we've changed on any flight since STS-1," the first shuttle flight in 1981, Kostelnik said.
NASA is removing the orange foam from the area of the external tank that broke off 81 seconds after liftoff and damaged Columbia's wing, so officials said they were hopeful they would never have to deal with such a large hole again.
The foam, designed to keep ice from forming on the outside of the tank, will be replaced by heaters.
There would also be repair kits available to fix smaller cracks or holes up to 4 inches (10 cm) across.
As for the inspection, NASA would rely on a visual examination made by astronauts with cameras aboard the space station. That requires the shuttle to slowly spin around in space as cameras whir aboard the station before docking.
"Of all the things we have on the table, this rotation pitch maneuver is probably the best understood, and we've got the highest confidence in it," deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.
The final decision on safety measures will not be left to the shuttle program managers. An independent panel headed by retired astronauts Tom Stafford and Richard Covey will have to decide whether NASA is in full compliance with the investigation board's recommendations.
But with all of the knowledge gained from the years of NASA testing. I am not detracting what he is accomplishing, just that this is not an orbiting platform, nor will likely be for a long time.
I am well acquainted with how all three systems were designed and implemented. I am just commenting on the fact that we are an awful long way from SSTO.
NASA's get-up-there-itis will prove a killer, once again.
I figgered. Grunts are, in their opinions, largely unsullied by ego, politics, or fear of reassignment to Guam, right? Burt Rutan is the 'Tucker" of aerospace engineering. (I was into hang-gliding, once, so I know a little about him) I'm cheering him, too. But for management at NASA, the institutional mediocrity is being exposed. Mebbe GW will ask Burt to be a cabinet-level Adviser for Space Exploration, just to make 'em blanch. HAHA
Smart move.
I predict the program will be terminated before any actual flights occur with an 'Advanced Health Management System' on board...
--Boris
And NASA benefited from the knowledge of German scientists amongst others. Shakespeare was known to borrow a story line or two. Newton stood on the shoulders of giants. In the long run, the private sector will win out.
Translation: The Shuttle is unsafe.
It's long past bedtime for this program. The Shuttle should be permanently grounded and the Space Station abandoned. Back to the drawing board!
27 - "Translation: The Shuttle is unsafe. "
space flight has always been unsafe. The orbiter will be 'safer' if they address the problems, but it will never be 'safe'.
The two problems they write up in the story are fixable, if they will do it.
1. Fixing the foam on the external tank should solve the problem about punching large holes in the wings.
2. And they already designed a robot inspection camera years ago, which could inspect for damage.
3. There are however other structural problems, and numbers of things which make it less safe than it could be.
4. However, the biggest safety problem is the NASA culture. which is what killed both the Challenger and the Colombia.
ping
This thing is, and was, death on a platter.
...and Columbus should have stayed home where it was safe.
That's ignorant-media-speak for the momentum wheels (gyroscopes), which are too heavy for the Progress to carry. If the station loses just one more, it will have to be abandoned.
He-hehe. I got that fellow to sign my logbook once.
Aren't these the same folks that managed to send a glorified R/C dune buggy to Mars to take photos? You'd think a small, dedicated UAV would be a no-brainer for these guys. Why complicate the the cargo arm?
Only if there is a profit.
How would you control it? Could you ensure it would not impact the Shuttle by accident?
Indeed. If the station is abandoned and starts to tumble, would we be able to dock safaly in the future?
Look at the commercial airlines. Over their decades long history, I think they are sum total in the red.
I guess if they left enough propellant onboard to use thrusters to stabilize the beast so the Shuttle could dock, that might work. I don't know the propellant figures of late. I'm betting that is getting low as well.
I hope you are right. I got into the space program because I have loved it ever since I was a wee lad.
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