Utah Suppliers for NASA May Get Needed Information on Space Program

Aug. 27–WASHINGTON–Tuesday’s critical report by investigators of the Columbia shuttle disaster may begin to erase uncertainty over the future of the space program and take two key NASA suppliers in Utah out of limbo, U.S. Reps. Jim Matheson and Rob Bishop said.

Matheson, the 2nd District Democrat, and Bishop, the 1st District Republican, are members of the House Science Committee, which has scheduled hearings next week to review the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) findings of the Feb. 1 re-entry destruction of the shuttle and the deaths of its seven crew members.

Although five shuttle flights were scheduled to launch this year, the spacecraft fleet has been grounded indefinitely, and the CAIB found that unless “persistent, systemic flaws are not resolved, the scene is set for another accident.”

Matheson said the CAIB recommendations will precipitate a major overhaul of NASA operations. He hopes they will lead to a more definitive target for resuming shuttle operations so that Utahns who depend on the shuttle for jobs have a better idea of the program’s future.

“I don’t want to diminish the task of addressing a culture change in the agency, but we also need to get some clarity of time frames and expectations for the guys in the supply chain who have been left in a state of uncertainty about when this program is going to retool,” Matheson said Tuesday in an interview from Utah.

Matheson represents Iron County, where American Pacific Corp.’s Western Electrochemical operating division manufactures ammonium perchlorate rocket fuel, the only producer of the oxidizing agent in North America. The Nevada company has 215 employees; most work at the plant near Cedar City.

One of the largest private employers in Bishop’s district is ATK Technology in Promontory, the exclusive manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters used in the space shuttle program.

“I appreciate that the investigation team divided their recommendations into those critical to returning to flight soon and those that are important for long-term safety,” Bishop said in a statement. “For the sake of our space program and the many Utahns that support it, I want to see the shuttle fly again. This report gives us the information we need to head in that direction.”

House Science Committee Chairman Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., said the first in a series of hearings by the panel on the future of the space shuttle program will be held Sept. 4.

“All this will take some time,” he said in a statement. “Acting too quickly will close off alternatives and lead to decisions being made without sufficient information, and could also compromise the safety of any future shuttle crew. “

NASA grounded the shuttle program for 32 months after the 1986 Challenger accident, which also killed all seven crew members aboard. The CAIB report released Tuesday found the lax institutional attitude toward safety had not noticeably improved at NASA since the Challenger accident and contributed to the failures of leadership that doomed Columbia.

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