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NASA Safety Efforts Questioned

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 April 2005, 12:00 CDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- Internal NASA documents obtained by a newspaper suggest that the agency is playing down the dangers posed by shuttle debris so it can continue to send astronauts into space. But space agency officials denied Friday that safety standards are being loosened.

The New York Times reported Friday that the documents by engineers and managers for the space agency show at least three changes in the statistical methods used in assessing the risks of debris like ice and insulating foam striking a shuttle during launching.

One presentation said lesser standards must be used to support accepting the risks of flight "because we cannot meet" the traditional standards, according to the newspaper.

The Times said there is debate within the agency about whether the changes are a reasonable reassessment of the hazards of flight or whether they jettison long-established rules to justify getting back to space quickly.

But NASA officials said in a telephone news conference Friday night that while engineers have differed in their mathematical approach to analyzing the threat of launch debris, in the end they all agreed on the risk levels. The discussion was open and all opinions were heard, they said. More analysis is needed before Discovery can lift off, as early as May 22, the officials noted.

A suitcase-size piece of fuel-tank foam insulation was blamed for the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia as it was returning from space in February 2003.

NASA officials maintain that the shuttle is safer than it has ever been because of changes made after the Columbia disaster, and they have long acknowledged that not all debris risk can be eliminated.

NASA:

www.nasa.gov

Source: Tulsa World

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