NASA Administrators Under Fire For Oversights (In essence, fly now and fix problems later)

NASA (news - web sites) managers spent Moday afternoon being grilled by Columbia accident investigators.

The major question from investigators: why foam insulation has repeatedly fallen off the shuttle's external fuel tank during launches, and why that problem was never fixed, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.

When the large external tank separates, cameras take a picture. Pictures taken from previous shuttle launches repeatedly showed chunks missing from the external fuel tank.

The pictures revealed chunks missing from the same place on several different missions. Investigators have theorized that chunks flew off the tank, damaging Columbia's wing and causing it to break up during its fiery reentry, reports indicated.

Former launch integration manager and current astronaut Jim Halsell faced sharp questions from Columbia accident investigators. He said, in some cases, NASA grants waivers for situations that are not supposed to happen. In essence, deciding to fly now and fix problems later.

Halsell said no one at NASA considered the foam insulation to be capable of causing major damage.

Former astronaut Sally Ride is also one of the investigators. She wanted to know if NASA would have taken the problem more seriously if an astronaut had seen wing damage in flight. Investigators said they would have pulled out all the stops to fix the problem before reentry

NASA Complacency Cited In Both Shuttle Accidents. VOA News 09 Apr 2003, 01:42 UTC

A member of the panel probing the shuttle Columbia disaster says complacency on the part of NASA preceded both of the disasters that have hit the shuttle program.

Former astronaut Sally Ride says before Columbia exploded, the U.S. space agency may have gotten too used to foam breaking off the fuel tanks and striking the shuttle's thermal protection system.

Investigators believe hard foam insulation falling from the external fuel tank during launch may have damaged the shuttle's wing. The spacecraft broke apart upon re-entry into the earth's atmosphere on February 1. Ms. Ride also says before the 1986 Challenger accident, NASA accepted problems related to the O-rings that connect the shuttle's solid-fuel rockets with its external fuel tanks.

The improper sealing of the O-rings is blamed for the Challenger accident. Ms. Ride served on the panel investigating the disaster. Ms. Ride made her comments Tuesday at a press conference in Florida. She is the first woman to orbit Earth.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=BFF58312-27FB-46CA-BF8415B6C39C29C4

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nasaproblems.com March 17, 2003

Space Shuttle Columbia is gone... but has the countdown already started for a third shuttle disaster? There were two reasons for the Columbia disaster: a system failure and a management failure. We may never know the exact cause for the system failure, but the reasons for the management failures are there for all to see. Unless the Office of the President and Congress address the following management failures... then indeed, the countdown has already started for the third shuttle disaster!

NASA Memo: "support a launch opportunity as early as Fall of 2003."

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