Panel Says STS-135 Decision Merits Urgency

Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | 10/25/2010 | Mark Carreau

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel will recommend that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the White House and Congress strive for a decision by the end of December whether to launch shuttle Atlantis on an extra mission to the International Space Station in mid-2011, to avoid potential risks associated with workforce uncertainty.

The eight-member panel agreed on the recommendation Oct. 22 during its fourth-quarter meeting at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, following two days of fact finding.

“You could say this is an administrative issue, but it’s a morale issue, too,” said Joe Dyer, the retired U.S. Navy vice admiral who chairs the panel originally established by Congress after the 1967 Apollo 1 fire to address the agency’s most pressing safety issues.

According to the panel, longer than Dec. 31 is too long to prolong the uncertainty over the shuttle’s retirement without escalating risk.

“It’s a tough time,” summed up ASAP panelist John Marshall, a former Delta Air Lines vice president for corporate safety. “There’s the economy, the job market and lots of factors. We think they are doing the best they can. But the lack of a timely decision will increase the anxiety of the workforce right before STS-134.”

[mazda77]

Here it is, keep the workforce, or whats left of it, on to think they have just one more flight coming to plan their lives and incomes around until after the election.

I will submit as 134 clears the tower, a press release will be submitted that the decision was made to scuttle 135 along with pink slips delivered to the launch crews and most likely leave the mess as is.

Complex 39 will end up looking like Complex 34 does now with weeds takng over the Apollo 1 launch site where Chaffee, White and Grissom died.