NASA Leaders Weigh Impact of Hurricanes on Return to Flight Plans (Shuttle launches delayed)

NASA press release ^ | October 1, 2004

[HAL9000]

NASA Leaders Weigh Impact of Hurricanes on Return to Flight Plans

NASA is working to determine how four hurricanes that affected several centers this year will impact efforts to return the Space Shuttle to flight. The agency has been working toward a launch-planning window that opens in March 2005.

Top officials in NASA's human space flight program met today. They determined the March-April window is no longer achievable. The Space Flight Leadership Council met in an executive session at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. The council directed the Space Shuttle Program to assess how it would meet Return to Flight milestones for the next available launch window, which opens May 14, 2005. The Shuttle program will present its analysis at a late October leadership council meeting.

"More than a year ago, we set out a specific plan for Return to Flight with specific milestones. Right now, those milestones are pointing us toward a new launch window," said William Readdy, NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations. "I am proud of our Shuttle team for taking good care of our orbiters during this terrible storm season. I am pleased they are taking the time to make a careful assessment of the hurricanes' impact. Their thoroughness will help us make the right decision," he said.

During this year's Atlantic hurricane season, four storms affected four NASA facilities in the southeastern United States. Thankfully, no workers were injured and no spacecraft or hardware damaged. However, Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne closed down NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for approximately nine days and damaged several facilities. Hurricane Ivan caused shorter closures at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss.; Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.; and the Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans. Many NASA workers and contractors are still coping with damage to their homes and other impacts on their families.

NASA's Space Flight Leadership Council is co-chaired by Readdy and Walter Cantrell, deputy chief engineer for the Independent Technical Authority. The council also includes the directors for NASA's four space operations centers; Chief Officer for Safety and Mission Assurance Bryan O'Connor; and Deputy Associate Administrator for International Space Station and Space Shuttle Programs, Michael Kostelnik.

For more information on NASA's Return to Flight efforts, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight

[Coyoteman]

Are you sure this should be in "Breaking News?"

Seems like the same old stuff. How about a few truly large X-prizes?

If NASA can't get it up, there are those who can.

[ProudVet77]

I used to be a huge fan of NASA, but they have become politicized too much. Don't get me wrong, during the space race with the Soviet Union it was about politics too. But the new politics is about safety. Space is not safe. Use NASA to send research vehicles out and leave it to the civilians to put men into space.

[Balding_Eagle]

The decision to build the Shuttle was a colossal mistake. We obviously have the advantage of hindsight, but those guys were pasd the big bucks to forsee some of the problems that a complicated machine like the shuttle could have.

We've thrown away more than 20 years.

[TNCMAXQ]

If they cant get the shuttle off the ground by April then I suppose the next window of opportunity could be summer. Also known as hurricane season. :( I am eager to see the shuttle return to flight but I fear it could be another year before that happens. The gap between flights may be longer this time than after the Challenger accident of 1986.

[Names Ash Housewares]

People. Quit ripping NASA so badly. Yeah its got problems. Bush is going to fix them. The new space inititive is revolutionary! We are on course for Moon and Mars now. We will fix the problems. Clinton screwed NASA up pretty bad. We STILL have a crew on the Space Station, we have two rovers on Mars, Cassini at Saturn. Columbias crew believed in NASA. We should too. And yes their deaths mean we must hold NASA accountable. But not destroy it in the process.
That is NOT what those astronauts would have wanted. Bush is doing exactly what they would have wanted. Fix the problems and Press ON.
We can do it. When NASA suceeds it is what America is about, we all suceed with NASA. Exploration and risk taking are core to this country. That is what NASA represents to me.

[ProudVet77]

I've been "with" NASA since Alan Shepard. My brother worked at the cape and I got to see a Saturn 1B launched and watched a TitanIIIC blow up in the air from his back yard. The original sin was going to the moon. While I understand it in hindsight, and am thrilled we did it, once we did it, we were left with NASA looking for work to do. The shuttle also fits the moon model. It was a "space truck". I remember seeing the first shuttle memory modules at Ampex in Marina Del Ray. 8KB was the size of a standard disk drive now. The latest screw up is the ISS. All of the above have one thing involved. Manned space flight. Let economic forces, not political forces drive manned space flight. NASA does unmanned projects very well, but they are driven via the JPL, which is not really NASA.
If NASA focused on boosters, the rest could be done by civilians.

[HAL9000]

I'm not ripping NASA, but I'll always remember meeting a well-known astronaut a couple of weeks before the Challenger accident - and he was strongly expressing his concerns about the program. He blamed Nixon.

Clearly, it's time for commercial ventures to take over some of the work NASA has done in the past, but I generally support NASA's science missions.