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<p>The head of the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster exonerated NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe yesterday for any personal responsibility in the Feb. 1 disaster, but he said people should be held accountable.</p> <p>Retired Navy Adm. Harold Gehman Jr. said organizational problems within the space agency that contributed to the loss of Columbia and the deaths of seven astronauts existed long before Mr. O'Keefe took over NASA in December 2001.</p>

Aug. 29, 2003 — In pledging to enact every recommendation of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe has committed the agency to climb a technological mountain: Design a band-aid that can withstand temperatures hot enough to melt lead, iron and titanium. "That's something that NASA is really working [on] very intensely," said board member Sheila Widnall, an expert on flight aerodynamics who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "There are very few materials that can withstand those kinds of temperatures. It's a tremendous problem," she said. Accident investigators, who delivered their findings and recommendations this week,...

<p>The Columbia Accident Investigation Board report was released on Tuesday.</p> <p>I haven't read it in its entirety, but I've skimmed the whole thing.</p> <p>The Gehman Commission is to be commended. They've pulled few punches and provided a lot of useful guidance to NASA to get the shuttle flying again -- if not completely safely, at least much more so. I also recommend reading the sections on history and space policy to anyone interested in those subjects. They provide very good insight into how we got into the mess we're in, which is to say that they've dealt very well with describing the past.</p>

I haven't read the Gehman Report on the Columbia accident in its entirety, though I've skimmed the whole thing, treading lightly on parts with which I'm already (unfortunately) all too familiar. These included the history of manned space flight in the U.S., and the specific technical description of what went wrong. The latter, in fact, is almost irrelevant to policy formulation per se — it's only of importance to those at NASA who have to implement specific technical fixes. In any event, I've read enough to know that there's little new here, to anyone who's followed the vagaries of...

<p>The proximal culprit in February's Columbia space-shuttle accident (the foam did it) was already well known before this week's report of the investigation board, led by retired Admiral Harold Gehman.</p> <p>So was the general charge that NASA kept the shuttle flying with hairpins and twine, metaphorically speaking. It knew that insulating foam had a habit of breaking off the external fuel tanks during launch, but the agency never rigorously examined the problem before concluding it was a nuisance, not a threat. Why? Because of a mindset, we're told, that didn't go out of its way to look for reasons to throw shuttle launches off schedule.</p>

EDWARDS AFB - Although it is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the space shuttle program, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base still will feel the effects of Tuesday's released Columbia Accident Investigation Board report. Agencywide reforms are promised by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe in response to the recommendations of the accident board. Precisely how those reforms will play out at the individual centers is not yet known, said Bob Meyer, acting deputy director at Dryden. One way Dryden likely will be affected is by an independent safety organization. This safety center, recommended by the...

<p>The space shuttle is unlikely to fly again until at least next summer, a former NASA official said yesterday -- a delay months longer than NASA leaders predicted before this week's critical report on the Columbia tragedy.</p> <p>The sweeping changes demanded by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board will probably push the next shuttle launch back to at least July 2004, said Joe Rothenberg, former NASA space flight director. Earlier this month, the current space flight director, Bill Readdy, said that the shuttle might fly as early as March.</p>

<p>NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe yesterday pledged to transform the space agency and root out the organizational problems that investigators said contributed to the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia.</p> <p>While Mr. O'Keefe took responsibility for all activities within the agency, he said he would rather hire strong leaders than remove people implicated by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board on Tuesday.</p>

Columbia's seven-member crew, including Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, could have been saved by launching the shuttle Atlantis on a rescue mission had NASA recognized the extent of the damage caused to the craft during its launch, according to the report released this week by the the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The conclusion came as no surprise to local author Yaffa Shir Raz, who recently wrote a book on the doomed shuttle, Hahitraskut (The Crash), which mirrored many of the conclusions in the US report. In an interview with Channel 2 on Wednesday, she said: "There was a high possibility that...

WASHINGTON — A flawed NASA culture is to blame for the Columbia shuttle disaster, according to a detailed, 200-plus-page report released Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, NASA (search) leaders were bracing for a storm of criticism. "The report is going to be embarrassing," physics professor Robert Park of the University of Maryland told Fox News. Space shuttle Columbia broke into pieces on Feb. 1 upon return into the atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (search) completed the report late last week after spending seven months probing the technical facts of the space tragedy and interviewing...

<p>Today, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) is expected to issue its final findings on the failures that led to the loss of the space shuttle Feb. 1. Its technical and managerial recommendations have already been signaled, and while it is critical that NASA personnel implement the necessary short-term fixes, it is even more important that NASA's leaders keep their focus on the agency's long-term goals for humans in space.</p>

he computer program that helped NASA mistakenly decide that the shuttle Columbia had not been deeply harmed by a piece of falling foam would have predicted serious damage if used properly, said the retired Boeing engineer who developed the program. The engineer, Allen J. Richardson, said the program, known as Crater, was never intended to be used in a mission to predict damage, as it was in Columbia's fatal flight. Members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which is expected to release its final report on the disaster tomorrow, have disparaged Crater as a flawed tool. But Mr. Richardson said...

In two days Congress will receive a major report on the shuttle disaster that will spark a funding battle with the potential to make or break the agency's human spaceflight programs. The 250-page report, to be released Tuesday by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, will do more than outline why one of NASA's small fleet of manned shuttles broke apart over Texas on Feb. 1. The board's 13 members, headed by retired Navy Adm. Harold Gehman, will spell out what needs to be done to make the shuttle program safer. And even though Gehman has said the report will not...