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NASA Administrator Warns Workers of 'Ugly' Report by Investigation Panel

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Jun. 28--NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe warned Johnson Space Center workers Friday to expect a bluntly critical assessment when the independent investigation board completes its report on the shuttle Columbia accident next month.

He urged the workers to resist becoming defensive because it could slow the agency's efforts to rebound from the Feb. 1 tragedy.

O'Keefe's remarks followed a directive from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board early Friday that NASA develop a strategy for making emergency external shuttle repairs before launchings resume, possibly before April.

"It's, make no mistake, going to be really ugly," O'Keefe told several hundred Johnson workers who crowded into a space center auditorium and others who listened over closed-circuit television. "This is going to be a nasty piece of writing. I can see that coming already."

The 13-member investigative panel has pledged to finish its formal findings by the end of July. The board has already concluded the shuttle breakup was precipitated by damage to the leading edge of the left wing, most likely caused by the impact of foam fuel tank insulation at liftoff.

But in a series of public hearings, news conferences and interim recommendations of the kind issued Friday, the board has revealed that its assessment will go much deeper, addressing lapses in safety, engineering and management.

Though the board's transparency has helped NASA get started in recovering from the tragedy, the often harsh tone and content of the public proceedings suggest the space agency can expect new criticism when the report is issued, the administrator said.

"Any amount of time we waste being defensive or responding to the circumstance is going to be time distracted from the objective of return to flight," O'Keefe said.

Board members revealed earlier this week in Washington that a series of recommendations on the guidelines for future shuttle operations was coming soon.

Friday's recommendation was especially noteworthy in that it addresses one facet of NASA's failure to attempt repairs to Columbia before the spacecraft and its seven astronauts began their ill-fated re-entry. Additional recommendations expected next week will deal with other facets, including better use of launch pad cameras and video equipment on the shuttle and space station with which to survey the shuttle for damage after liftoff.

The new directive will require shuttle astronauts to have the tools, materials and training to patch a hole in the fragile insulating materials that protect the shuttle like an oven mitt.

The breach in Columbia's left wing allowed hot gases to invade the internal structure, triggering structural failure.

Under the board's directive, the space agency must have a means for its astronauts to repair the big U-shaped carbon composite panels that wrap around the wing edge, the much smaller and more numerous silica tiles that cover much of the fuselage and the thermal blankets that cover many of the curved surfaces.

The board instructed NASA to develop repair techniques that could be used whether a shuttle is parked at the space station or not. The directive is challenging because it will require spacewalking astronauts to work along the vulnerable wing edges as well as on the smooth underside of the spacecraft.

Investigators directed NASA to be prepared to make repairs when the shuttle visits the Hubble Space Telescope or in instances when the winged spacecraft is damaged after it departs the space station.

Space agency engineers studied repair strategies before the first shuttle mission in 1981, but abandoned the effort when they were unable to find a caulk that could be used to fill areas.

INITIAL FOAM TEST REVEALS BREACH OF SHUTTLE PANEL

Investigators fired a foam projectile at a mock-up of the shuttle Columbia's left wing leading edge Friday, striking for the first time a fiberglass replica of the same protective panel that was damaged before the spacecraft's fatal breakup.

Initial post-test inspections revealed the impact of the 1.67-pound sample of foam insulation from a shuttle fuel tank created a gap between the eighth and ninth carbon composite panels of the mock-up

As expected, fragments of the foam lodged permanently between the two panels, said Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

Friday's test at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio was considered a dress rehearsal for a July 7 impact test in which the target will be an actual No. 8 shuttle carbon composite panel.

That test is considered crucial in supporting the prevailing theory for the shuttle's Feb. 1 disintegration.

Investigators believe Columbia's Feb. 1 breakup was precipitated by a breach of the left wing at panel eight. The chief suspect is a breakaway chunk of the foam that struck the underside of the left wing as Columbia and its crew of seven lifted off on Jan. 16.

Previous tests produced cracks and gaps in carbon and fiberglass versions of panel six. Experts are evaluating whether the damage was sufficient to cause the shuttle accident.

-- Mark Carreau

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(c) 2003, Houston Chronicle. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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