NASA Assures Board It Will Follow Directives on Space-Shuttle Safety
Posted on: Wednesday, 6 August 2003, 06:00 CDT
Aug. 6--CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.--NASA's second-in-command pledged Tuesday to carry out each of the safety directives issued by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board before the agency resumes space shuttle missions.
However, Fred Gregory, NASA's deputy administrator, said it would be premature to begin addressing potentially far-reaching "cultural" reforms the 45-year-old agency is expected to face.
"My assumption is we will follow to the letter the recommendations," Gregory said at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "There will be no attempt, whatsoever, to argue or defend recommendations from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board."
The space agency would like to resume the assembly of the U.S.-led international space station by mid-March with its first post-Columbia flight if it can meet the board's "return to flight" criteria.
Gregory was among three top NASA officials in Florida Tuesday to greet the task force recently appointed to assure the agency addresses each of the investigative board's directives.
The board plans late this month to formally issue its findings on the direct and contributing causes of Columbia's loss.
The document will specify technical remedies as well as a lengthy discussion of the "cultural," or administrative and managerial, issues that contributed to safety lapses that might have prevented the Feb. 1 breakup of Columbia and the deaths of the seven astronauts aboard.
The investigative panel believes the accident was triggered by a chunk of breakaway fuel-tank foam insulation that struck Columbia's left wing moments after a Jan. 16 liftoff. The impact created a hole that allowed superheated gases to invade the wing during Columbia's descent to Earth.
Much of the board's inquiry also has focused on why the agency miscalculated the risk of foam that was striking shuttles on every mission. Columbia's mission management team believed the latest impact would mean post-landing repairs for the spacecraft but no hazard to the seven astronauts.
When quizzed Tuesday about how his agency plans to improve its ability to assess risk and become more receptive to the concerns expressed by those outside management, Gregory said the answers would have to follow the report.
The space agency hopes to resume shuttle missions by March, primarily to resume the assembly of the U.S.-led international space station. Gregory and the others, however, cautioned those plans could be too optimistic if the board's directives prove too daunting.
Tuesday marked the first gathering of the 27-member task force appointed by NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe to keep tabs on how well the agency follows the board's forthcoming guidelines.
Led by Tom Stafford, the former Apollo astronaut, and Dick Covey, the former shuttle astronaut who led the 1993 mission that corrected the optical flaws of the Hubble Space Telescope, the task force is being briefed this week on the shuttle program's status.
Tuesday's activities included a closed-door meeting with five members of the investigative board.
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(c) 2003, Houston Chronicle. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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