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'We get it,' NASA chief says, vowing changes at agency

Posted on: Thursday, 28 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

WASHINGTON -- The day after an independent panel investigating the space shuttle Columbia accident blasted NASA for its insular and complacent culture, NASA chief Sean O'Keefe vowed Wednesday to overhaul the way the space agency does its job.

''We get it -- clearly got the point,'' O'Keefe said at a news conference. ''These must be institutional changes, and that's what we're committed to doing.''

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, in its report released Tuesday, concluded that NASA's lack of curiosity, misplaced self-confidence and crippled safety department were major factors in the loss of Columbia Feb. 1.

O'Keefe, who had been in office a year at the time of the accident, warned Wednesday that reshaping NASA as the accident board demands will not be easy.

''It's intimidating to see the sheer magnitude and the scope of the challenge we're going to have to take on here,'' O'Keefe said in an interview after the new conference. ''It is not going to be a cakewalk.''

At least one member of the accident board said Wednesday that he thought the report wasn't critical enough.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Duane Deal told the Associated Press that he has written a supplement to the main report that says NASA should fix many technical problems unrelated to the Columbia accident.

The report does relate a series of errors in judgment, bad communication and lack of follow-through by NASA managers that contributed to the loss of the Columbia and its seven crewmembers.

It also says NASA has resisted repeated attempts to change the way it operates, including recommendations made after the Challenger accident in 1986.

Reading how NASA's failures led to the loss of the shuttle and deaths of its crew proved emotionally difficult, O'Keefe said in the interview.

It provoked an ''overwhelming emotional letdown and sadness,'' O'Keefe said.

The report, he said, ''is a very comprehensive discussion of why seven people died. . . . You see that every misstep, every aspect of this had a role in that end. And it's pretty emotional in that respect.''

O'Keefe acknowledged that some NASA staffers will be in ''denial'' about what the report says. But he said he had been encouraging NASA staff not to waste time nitpicking the report. He pledged that the agency will follow all of the board's recommendations without exception.

O'Keefe himself was criticized in the report for pressuring workers to stick to the deadline for construction of the International Space Station.

The accident board found that O'Keefe's emphasis on keeping to the schedule may have led managers to downplay the seriousness of problems with the foam on the shuttle's fuel tank.

A piece of the foam hit Columbia during liftoff and knocked a hole in the wing. When Columbia re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, superhot gases burned through the wing and led to the shuttle breaking apart.

O'Keefe declined to say how the board's report would affect the timing of the next shuttle launch. NASA had been planning to return to flight in the spring, but the extensive criticism outlined in the report may force the agency to change its plans.

This is not the first time O'Keefe has been faced with transforming the culture of an agency. He took over as secretary of the Navy in 1992, after the Tailhook sexual harassment scandal. Then, too, he told the media, ''We get it,'' after receiving a report that blasted the conduct and response of Navy officers.

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