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<p>CAPE CANAVERAL -- A rushed launch of a rescue shuttle. Two orbiters drifting in tight formation at 17,500 mph. A series of harrowing spacewalks to move astronauts from one crippled shuttle to one that could bring them safely back to Earth.</p>

The central problem with the space station is that its builders keep changing the justification for its existence as they respond to the latest failures in the manned space program. Despite the protestations of some, cost is a critical issue for the international space station program, with over 60 billion dollars still to be committed in new funding allocations from the US, Europe, Japan and Russia -- all of whom have growing budget deficits. Meanwhile, the growing failure to actually do any significant amount of science on the station is bringing the critical debate of what the station is actually...

April 24, 2003 Shuttles' First Engineers Exasperated One suggests Columbia's liftoff accident should have alarmed anyone schooled in physics. By Scott Gold, Times Staff Writer HOUSTON — Some of the original architects of America's space shuttle program told investigators Wednesday that they never designed the spacecraft to withstand a forceful strike from any object, much less the large chunks of foam insulation that pounded the Columbia 16 days before it disintegrated. At a boisterous public hearing that at times felt like a production of "Grumpy Old Engineers," several men who helped NASA realize its dream of building a reusable spacecraft...

April 22, 2003 3,000 Amateurs Offer NASA Photos of Columbia's Demise Associated PressContrails from the Columbia are seen in a video image taken by two Dutch military pilots training at Fort Hood, Tex., on Feb. 1. This widely circulated image, purported to be of the shuttle Columbia, is actually from the 1998 movie "Armageddon." By JOHN SCHWARTZ OUSTON, April 19 - Dan McNew thought he had shot the home movie of a lifetime. He had aimed his digital video camera at the shuttle Columbia as it returned to earth on Feb. 1; living near Dallas, in the path of...

PRESS RELEASEDate Released: Friday, April 18, 2003 Boeing Boeing Launches Orbital Space Plane Design Boeing engineers are designing the Orbital Space Plane (OSP) for NASA utilizing nearly 50 years of expertise in producing spacecraft.Boeing is one of three contractor teams developing proposals for the program which includes the spacecraft, ground operations and all supporting technologies needed to conduct missions to and from the International Space Station.Boeing was awarded a $45 million contract modification on the NASA Space Launch Initiative program for work on the space plane. The modification extends the current contract through July 2004.The Orbital Space Plane will...

  Passenger-Carrying Spaceship Makes Desert DebutBy Leonard DavidSenior Space Writerposted: 02:00 pm ET18 April 2003  The wraps are coming off what is billed as the "First Private Manned Space Program" and a new, never-seen spaceship.Aggressive work on a passenger-carrying sub-orbital craft has been active and hidden from public view for two years. Labeled as the SpaceShipOne Project, the unveiling comes courtesy of Scaled Composites, Inc. -- highly regarded as a leader in innovative aircraft development -- and based in the Mojave, California desert, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles.Noted design wizard, Burt Rutan, is lead maverick of the...

NASA Administrators Under Fire For Oversights 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...

Japan Rethinks Its Space Program By Eric Talmadge Associated Press posted: 08:50 pm ET 05 April 2003 TANEGASHIMA, Japan (AP) -- To a round of excited applause, Japan's fifth H2-A rocket -- black and orange, with a bold "Nippon" emblazoned on its side -- blasted off from the sprawling space center on this remote, rocky island last month. The 180-foot rocket represents the height of Japan's technological prowess and its membership in the small club of nations able to reach space. But despite five successful launches in a row, Japanese space officials are finding little cause to cheer these days....

Launch pad primer may have weakened Columbia's wing edges, enough to break when foam hit A paint primer leaching off NASA's launch towers may have formed tiny holes in the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, weakening it enough to break when struck by a chunk of foam during liftoff, accident investigators said Tuesday. Air Force Maj. Gen. John Barry said pinholes in the quarter-inch-thick protective carbon lining the wing may have allowed air pockets to form in the material. The air could have eaten away at the carbon like termites, a process called oxidation. The holes have appeared...

Funeral services for Texas Forest Service employee Charles Krenek, who died in a helicopter accident yesterday while working on the Columbia Shuttle Search & Recovery Incident, will be held Sunday, Mar. 30, at 2 p.m. at the 1st Assembly of God Family Church, 2021 S. John Redditt Dr. (Loop 287 West), Lufkin, Texas. Expressions of sympathy may be mailed to the Krenek family or the Mier family at the following address: Family of _________________ Disaster Field Office ATTN: Gay Ippolito 415 S. First St., Suite 121 Lufkin, TX 75901 Get well cards may be mailed those injured in the crash:...

House Science Committee, Democratic Membership Rep. Hall: NASA Needs to Heed ASAP's Call For A Shuttle Crew Escape System The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), chartered by Congress in 1967 to act as an independent body advising NASA on safety issues, released its annual report on Tuesday, March 25th. The report, which was finished before the Columbia accident, nevertheless focused on a number of Shuttle safety issues. In particular, the ASAP stated that "...the Panel reemphasizes the need for a crew escape system. The [Space Shuttle] program has not committed to the implementation of such a capability." Later in...

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Shuttle Accident Cause May Never Be Fully Known CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Investigators of the shuttle Columbia accident voiced doubt on Tuesday they would ever know with absolute certainty what destroyed the craft last month as it entered the atmosphere, killing its seven astronauts. "I don't think we're ever going to be able to say absolutely 100 percent this is what it was, or zero percent this is what it was. We're going to be looking at what's the preponderance of evidence," said James Hallock, an aviation safety expert and member of the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The...

Shuttle began to fall apart while over the Pacific Ocean HOUSTON -- Shuttle Columbia most likely was losing pieces long before it made landfall over California on Feb. 1, yet continued to "fly like a champ" right until its break-up over Central Texas. At a public hearing Monday, NASA flight director Paul Hill said he was surprised the orbiter maintained control for as long as it did. Right until the end, "the vehicle flew perfectly, there was no indication of what was going on in flight control," said Hill, who is in charge of a team investigating early sightings of...

Shuttle Team Sought Satellite Assessment of Liftoff Damage Two or three days after the space shuttle Columbia's liftoff, a group of NASA engineers asked the shuttle program manager to request the aid of United States spy satellites in determining the extent of debris damage to the shuttle's left wing, but the manager declined to do so, a senior NASA official said yesterday. Advertisement The official said the satellites would "absolutely" have helped the engineers measure any damage to the wing's protective heat tiles from debris slamming into them about 81 seconds after liftoff on Jan. 16. He said Lambert Austin,...

March 9 — As the space shuttle Columbia was breaking apart over Texas on Feb. 1, one of the shuttle's pilots may have attempted to take control of the spacecraft, ABCNEWS has learned. On re-entry, the shuttle normally is controlled by on-board computers. But recovered data from the last seconds of flight indicates that one of the pilots, commander Rick Husband or Wille McCool, may have attempted to disengage the auto pilot in what would have been a futile effort to regain control of Columbia, sources working with investigators told ABCNEWS. Astronauts are taught to take control of the shuttle...

New Analysis Sees Shuttle Breakup Beginning Earlier ASHINGTON, March 9 — The shuttle Columbia was already spinning out of control, its left wing and left maneuvering jets damaged or destroyed, in the last two seconds of data transmission, two officials close to the investigation said today, citing a new analysis by NASA. The analysis, scheduled for release early this week, paints a picture of desperate trouble far earlier in the shuttle's re-entry than had been previously described. Investigators said on Feb. 25 that the Columbia's last two-second burst of data, sent about 9 a.m. Eastern time on Feb. 1, showed...

Fetus found at shuttle debris search facility 03/07/2003 Associated Press CORSICANA, Texas - Authorities are questioning women helping with the search for space shuttle Columbia debris after what appeared to be a dead newborn baby or fetus was found in a portable toilet at a search command post facility in East Texas Thursday. The area's tight security has led the initial investigation to focus on women who are part of the shuttle search, Corsicana Police Chief G.M. Cox said. The North Central Texas facility has a single-access entry staffed with a sheriff's deputy and local police and personnel are...

Columbia investigators work complex puzzle 03/06/2003 Associated Press HOUSTON - In the first public hearing of the Columbia investigation board, NASA officials defended decisions that gave private contractors much of the direct responsibility for maintaining and operating the space shuttle. Seven members of the board, searching for the cause of the shuttle's breakup, questioned space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore and Johnson Space Center Director Jefferson Davis Howell about NASA's policies that shifted much of the responsibility for fixing and flying the shuttle to private contractors. Both Howell and Dittemore said safety has not been compromised and remains the...

<p>MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's space chief warns that time was running out for the United States to help pay for extra Russian spacecraft to run the international space station during the halt in U.S. shuttle flights.</p> <p>"The problem has be resolved within a month," Russian Aerospace Agency director Yuri Koptev said during a seminar Monday with Italian government officials and aerospace executives in Moscow.</p>