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Ex-NASA Official Cites Old Concerns

Posted on: Friday, 7 March 2003, 06:00 CST

By PAUL RECER

HOUSTON (AP) -- It's been three years since a report faulted NASA's space shuttle safety program, but the problems persist and may have played a role in the destruction of Columbia, a former space agency official said.

Speaking at the first public hearing of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, Henry McDonald said Thursday a report he co-authored in 2000 found NASA engineers lacked a fundamental understanding of risks and often failed to detect subtle problems that could lead to trouble.

McDonald, the former director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., said the report also found a breakdown in communications - relating the problem to a flurry of concerned e-mails between engineers that were never shared with top management during Columbia's mission.

"It's a replay," McDonald told reporters after addressing the board.

McDonald, now an engineering professor at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, was one of four experts to testify before the Columbia investigation board. It was the first public hearing for the board; the chairman, retired Adm. Harold Gehman Jr., said others will be held March 17 and 18.

The shuttle was returning from 16 days in space when it broke up over Texas on Feb. 1, killing the seven-member crew and spreading shattered bits of spacecraft over hundreds of miles. The board was appointed to find out why it happened.

McDonald testified that research for the 2000 report showed NASA engineers had a flawed perception of risks. Some falsely believed that "if I've flown 20 times, the risk is less than if I've just flown once," he said.

"If you have a 1-in-100 chance of risk of an event occurring, the event can occur on the first or the last" time, McDonald said. "We were continually attempting to inform them unless they change the risk, positively, they still have the same issue even after 50 flights or 60 flights."

McDonald's shuttle safety study was commissioned after a pair of close calls on a 1999 Columbia launch: one involved a short circuit, the other a leaking main engine.

Among other things, the report found NASA was using an outdated computer database that made it difficult for managers to track problems detected during the processing of space shuttles before launch.

McDonald said some improvements have been made, but it is still difficult for engineers to spot small, subtle changes or problems that over time could seriously threaten the spacecraft.

Others who testified were Ron Dittemore, the shuttle program manager, Jefferson Davis Howell Jr., the Johnson Space Center director, and Keith Chong, a Boeing engineer. Dittemore and Howell answered questions about the management structure of NASA and Chong discussed how foam insulation is applied to the fuel tank on the Delta IV rocket. Similar foam insulation is used on the shuttle.

Shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore, foreground, testifies before the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. (AP Photo)

Films taken of Columbia during its Jan. 16 launch showed foam insulation or other debris falling from the shuttle's external tank and smashing into the left wing.

One theory of the accident is that thermal protection tiles on the wing were broken or damaged, allowing the 2,500 degree heat of re-entry to penetrate the interior of wing. The heat could have softened the aluminum structure and caused the wing to fail.

While Columbia was still in orbit, Boeing engineers evaluated the possible damage to the tiles from the launch debris and concluded it represented no danger to the craft or its crew.

The 4 1/2-hour hearing was sparsely attended, with fewer than 100 observers in the 500-seat theater auditorium at the Clear Lake branch of the University of Houston. Eight board members participated.

In Washington, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe told lawmakers at a Senate subcommittee hearing that NASA faces dangerous staff shortages because of looming retirements and fewer college graduates with the skills it needs.

"We lost some individuals with skills we couldn't afford to lose" during the past decade, O'Keefe said. "Through downsizing and the normal attrition process, we lost key areas of our institutional knowledge base."

The space agency has been lobbying for employment changes, including higher pay and bonuses, for more than a year.

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