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"Not Culture but Perhaps a Cult", Op Ed on NASA and the Shuttle by Homer Hickam
SpaceRef.com ^ | Friday, August 29, 2003 | Homer Hickam

Posted on 08/31/2003 1:57:37 PM PDT by anymouse

At the end of the movie "October Sky" which was based on my memoir Rocket Boys, there is a dramatic launch of the Space Shuttle. The director of the film wanted to show the transition from my small amateur rockets in West Virginia to the huge professional rockets of NASA as a metaphor for my own transition from coal-town boy to big-time space engineer. The scene works wonderfully. When I was at the Venice Film Festival, the audience rose to their feet after this scene and applauded me while tears streamed down their faces. When I go to the Cape and watch the Shuttle being launched, I still get a lump in my throat watching it soar aloft. Even though I no longer work for NASA, its thunder affirms my dreams for spaceflight. Still, when I put emotion aside, I cannot ignore my engineering training. That training and my knowledge as a twenty-year veteran of the space agency (and also a Vietnam veteran) has led me to conclude that the Space Shuttle Program may well be NASA's Vietnam. A generation of engineers and managers have exhausted themselves trying to make it work and they just can't. But why not? I believe it is because the Shuttle's engineering design, just as Vietnam's political design, is inherently flawed.

Much has been made over the report produced by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). I have since read newspaper articles that called the report "scathing." Hardly. Its polite recommendations probably had Shuttle managers who made poor decisions dancing down their office hallways with relief. Essentially, it gave them a pass by proclaiming "culture" made them do it. It is an echo of the Rand Commission's study on the Shuttle Program produced almost exactly one year ago which also wrung its hands over the NASA culture, though with a different conclusion (turn the whole thing over to contractors).

I do not believe there is a NASA culture other than a willingness by its engineers to work their butts off to keep us in space. It might be said, however, that there is a Shuttle cult. It is practiced like a religion by space policy makers who simply cannot imagine an American space agency without the Shuttle. Well, I can and it is a space agency which can actually fly people and cargoes into orbit without everybody involved being terrified of imminent death and destruction every time the Shuttle lifts off the pad.

With some important reservations, the CAIB recommended to keep the Shuttles flying but with more inspections, more bureaucracy (an outside safety agency to keep an eye on everybody involved), and more money. But I think piling on more inspections and people and dollars won't make the Shuttle any safer. Neither will the safety sensitivity training that will be probably be dumped on top of already overworked and disillusioned NASA engineers. My God, they've already dedicated their lives, their very souls, to keep the Shuttle flying safely! The truth is no amount of arm-waving and worrying about "culture" can fix a flawed design. Every engineer knows a design that tries to bypass the realities of physics, chemistry, and strengths of materials by applying complexity will fail eventually no matter how much attention is given to it.

Take a look at the Shuttle stack and what do you see? A fragile spaceplane sitting on the back of a huge propellant tank between two massive solid rocket boosters. The tank holds liquid oxygen and hydrogen and towers above the spaceplane. It is the foam off this tank that hit Columbia and knocked a hole in her wing. But why is there foam at all? Because without it, ice would form on the super-cooled tank and hit the spaceplane. But why would ice or foam hit it in the first place? Because of where the spaceplane sits. But why does it sit there? Because the Shuttle Main Engines (SME's) need to come back to Earth and therefore must be attached to the spaceplane to be returned. And why do the SME's need to be returned? So that they can be reused. And why do they have to be reused? Because, theoretically, it's cheaper to refurbish them than build new ones. Therefore, the spaceplane we think of as the Shuttle has to sit right in the middle of all the turmoil of launch because we once believed it would be cheaper to bring back those engines and rebuild them than to build new ones. That has not proved to be the case-far from it-but it has left us with a crew sitting in the most vulnerable position possible in terms of engineering design and safety. Simply put, had that spaceplane been on top of the stack, the destruction of Columbia would not have occurred because its wings would have been out of the line of fire. Challenger would probably not have happened, either. Had the spaceplane been above the explosion, it likely would have been able to punch out and glide back home.

The flawed design of the Shuttle is all in its history and it's more than the way the stack is assembled. For instance, the Shuttle uses hydrogen fuel, the most difficult, cranky fuel there is. Hydrogen is the smallest atom in the universe and leaks through molecule-sized pinholes. When it gathers in an enclosed space (such as under the shuttle stack on the pad), it's a bomb waiting to go off. Hydrogen leakages grounded the Shuttles for three months before Columbia was launched and scares a lot of NASA engineers to death. So why do they use hydrogen and all its cranky plumbing? Because the Shuttle's original designers had to wring the last ounce of performance out of it to haul those mains into orbit along with the heavy payloads that the Air Force demanded at the time (the Air Force long ago gave up on the Shuttle). And what about those solid rocket boosters, unstoppable once lit? They leave the crews with no choice but to hang on until they've wound down even if their spaceplane is being torn apart. They were added not because they were the best boosters around but because they were relatively cheap. If his engineers had brought my father something to dig coal as flawed in its suppositions as well as its design as the Shuttle, he would have chased them out of his coal mine.

The odd thing is that the Shuttle was designed by great engineers. The problem is they were forced to fit their designs to fit what has proved to be an impossible concept, a chemically-propelled rocket ship that would carry humans and heavy payloads into orbit routinely, then land to be refurbished and sent aloft again within days. They also had to do it on the cheap. It was inevitable that a flawed design would be the result. In my second memoir The Coalwood Way, I wrote about me always complaining about the past until Roy Lee, a fellow Rocket Boy, tells me to stop it because "You can't beat history." And he was right even though, as I wrote, "It placed my heart in the icy vise of truth where hearts tend to suffer." The heart of every NASA engineer suffers today in this icy truth: the Space Shuttle is an inherently flawed design and will destroy American human spaceflight if we don't get it behind us. It's nearly done it already.

So what should be done? Let's get practical. We can't just shut the thing down instantly. History's got us by the throat. We need the Shuttle to finish the space station and to also keep the Russians and Chinese from dominating space. I for one am not willing to see that occur while we dither. Human spaceflight is important to this country. But I think the Shuttle is as safe as you're going to get it pretty much with what is in place today. Let's fire the managers responsible for Columbia (they are not difficult to identify) so as to warn the next crop they'd best be competent, put the toughest engineers we can find to be in charge of the program, fly the thing eight to ten more times over the next four years to finish the space station and meet our international obligations. Then let's close the program down in a controlled fashion and replace it with proven expendable launchers and a shiny new spaceplane. And, this time, put it on top.

Homer Hickam's new novel, The Keeper's Son, will be released by St. Martin's in September, 2003. See www.homerhickam.com.

Editor's note: A shorter version of this editorial appeared in the Wall Street Journal.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Technical; US: Texas; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: caib; columbia; goliath; nasa; octobersky; rocketboys; shuttle; space; vietnam
As well as Homer hits the problem square on the head, he wildly misses on identifying the right solution. He is still a captive of the NASA cult of government "right stuff" mentality. Time to break the the trance equating space development with NASA that threatens to doom us to repeating falure over and over again.
1 posted on 08/31/2003 1:57:37 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: *Space
Space ping
2 posted on 08/31/2003 2:00:09 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: anymouse
*BUMP* !
3 posted on 08/31/2003 2:09:55 PM PDT by ex-Texan (NASA should just use the saucers hidden at Area 51!)
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To: anymouse; bonesmccoy; XBob
A most excellent article.
4 posted on 08/31/2003 6:57:34 PM PDT by snopercod (The moving finger writes...)
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To: anymouse; snopercod; bonesmccoy
he's right, it was not the design of choice, and is full of flaws. It was designed to be 'cheap', and put off 'construction' costs into 'operations' costs, and to re-use the existing Apollo ground installation/equipment.

However, that being said, poor design was not the cause of the Colombia murders. It was a deliberate management failure to do it's job and fix obvious problems, the same reason for the loss of the Challenger.

You don't repeatedly ignore the 'check engine oil' light, then be surprised when the engine blows up.
5 posted on 09/01/2003 3:06:11 AM PDT by XBob
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To: XBob; anymouse; snopercod
Homer Hickam has great ideas!

His analysis is correct.

The STS design was more of a product of Nixon Administration politics than "aerodynamic truths".

One can hope that we can correct Nixon's remaining legacy and get us back to the moon with strength.

But, alas, here is the rub.

The Big Dumb Booster crowd will show up.

The small glider crowd will argue.

Meanwhile, Rutan is still building.

Go Rutan!
6 posted on 09/01/2003 7:24:53 AM PDT by bonesmccoy (Defeat the terrorists... Vaccinate!)
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To: bonesmccoy
Rutan has the right idea, however, NASA , IMO, should devote it's resources to investigating anti-gravity.

We desperately need a paradigm shift, otherwise we will be stuck on this ball and 'Startrek' will never happen.
7 posted on 09/01/2003 11:47:36 AM PDT by XBob
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To: bonesmccoy
And at the rate we are going, we (humans) will cease to exist in 100 years, as our crazies will kill us all off.
8 posted on 09/01/2003 11:49:13 AM PDT by XBob
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To: XBob
One of the smartest men who ever lived - Richard Feynman - said there was no possibility of an anti-gravity machine based upon his knowledge of the way the universe was put together.

You probably know that he was a quantum physicist, and pretty much single-handedly figured out why the Challenger was lost.

9 posted on 09/01/2003 11:53:55 AM PDT by snopercod (The moving finger writes...)
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To: snopercod
Feynman >bump<

Not sure he uncovered the O-ring issue himself, my suspiscion is that others pointed him in the right direction, if not pointing "it" (particular elastomeric material becoming rigid when cold, and therefore not appropriate for the application) out directly.

However, Feynnman deserves to get full credit for the public presentation.

Smart fellow, writes well, and presents himself as preferring to be in the company of "common folk."

10 posted on 09/01/2003 11:59:38 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Cboldt
others pointed him in the right direction

You are correct. The Air Force General brought Dr. Feynman along...

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the video, The Best Mind Since Einstein.

Richard Feynman

11 posted on 09/01/2003 2:42:20 PM PDT by snopercod (taking the fine art of syncophancy to new heights)
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To: snopercod; bonesmccoy; Cboldt
9 - I do not know of/about "Richard Feynman" or his theories, but I do know about the o-rings. I know that the o-rings had been leaking for years, since they changed the putty, and just about every launch had 'near burn throughs' on the o-rings. I know because I and my brother personally talked to those servicing the shuttle SRB's, and saw photo's of many of the near-burn-throughs. And these were the guys who actually worked on the SRB segments.

I also know that the o-ring problem was so serious, they completed a design fix 17 months before the Challenger murders. 17 MONTHS. And yet NASA management wouldn't/couldn't get the gumption to fix the problem, even after it was designed.

So, I will defer on his theory that anti-gravity is impossible, particularly, since, even today, WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT GRAVITY IS !!!!
12 posted on 09/03/2003 11:59:11 AM PDT by XBob
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To: XBob
Same failure mode recently -- many foam strike damages noted on recent shuttle flights, yet the level of concern didn't correlate with the level of foreseeable loss.
13 posted on 09/03/2003 12:11:04 PM PDT by Cboldt
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