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NASA's New Safety Center in Virginia Holds Veto Power over Launches

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Jul. 16--WASHINGTON--NASA's new Engineering and Safety Center will have the authority to veto space shuttle launches and demand that problems detected in orbit be fixed during rather than between missions, the agency's top official said Tuesday.

Administrator Sean O'Keefe said the safety office, which will be based at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is meant to address a major source of criticism leveled at the space agency by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board -- that NASA's engineering and safety personnel are not sufficiently independent from the shuttle program and don't have the backing they need to be effective.

"We've taken that to heart," O'Keefe said.

The center will be staffed by 250 engineers from throughout the agency. O'Keefe said most will work in the safety office for only three to five years to ensure the agency always has fresh eyes monitoring its safety procedures.

The center will be led by Roy Bridges, a former astronaut who served for more than six years as director of Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Ralph Roe, manager of the space shuttle vehicle engineering office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Bryan O'Connor, a former astronaut and associate administrator for the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, will oversee the center from NASA headquarters in Washington.

O'Keefe said the cost of setting up the center is undetermined.

Also to be determined, he said, is how much money the agency will need to fix its three remaining shuttles and resume flying in the next six to nine months.

On Tuesday, the House subcommittee that handles NASA's budget approved essentially what President Bush requested last February -- about $15.5 billion for fiscal year 2004. Questions regarding budget increases have been deferred until the Columbia panel completes its work and NASA determines what its return-to-flight efforts will cost.

O'Keefe said the safety center will be a clearing house for concerns brought by NASA employees, such as those expressed via e-mail by Langley engineers during the Columbia mission. The center also will provide the independent engineering assessment, testing and trend analysis the investigative board said is lacking at the agency.

Investigators believe the Feb. 1 breakup of Columbia was triggered by the impact of a chunk of foam fuel tank insulation against the underside of the spacecraft's left wing at liftoff. The damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate the wing as the shuttle descended to Earth.

The investigative panel learned after the tragedy that every shuttle mission experienced some damage from foam impacts. Over time, shuttle managers grew to accept the problem -- a mind-set that proved fatal during the Columbia mission.

"We find the safety program on paper is perfect, but when you bore down a little deeper you find there is no 'there' there," the board's chairman, Adm. Harold Gehman, testified during a May 14 hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "The safety organization sits right beside the (shuttle) person making the decisions, but behind the safety organization there is nothing there, no people, money, engineering, expertise, analysis."

By Patty Reinert and Mark Carreau. Chronicle reporter Karen Masterson contributed to this report.

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

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