11/29/2023 0 Comments Space shuttle launch profileIt is faith and hope and anecdotes, not a certified, legalistic determination. But this is almost always an intuitive judgment, not a measured, calibrated conclusion of an explicit process. The overwhelming consensus among space workers is that the next shuttle mission will be far safer, and that the memory of the Columbia disaster has motivated everyone to be especially careful. ![]() ![]() That attitude has led to hideous catastrophes in space history, and in enterprises on Earth as well. It is foolhardy to complacently assume it is safe until its danger can be proved. They are wrestling with the fundamental principle of flight safety, that a potentially hazardous condition must be proven to be safe. NASA and the Stafford-Covey group are not getting tied up with empty semantics. Even if he were to take office prior to the shuttle launch date, he would be required to make perhaps the most important decision in the history of the shuttle program with only a few days notice.Īlso worrisome to many is the fact that NASA’s current headquarters leadership consists essentially of the very same individuals who were in charge in January 2003 when the judgment was made that it was safe to fly the Columbia shuttle, and later, that it was safe to disregard multiple clues that significant damage might have been done to the thermal protection system during launch. The new administrator, Michael Griffin, has yet to be confirmed. The quality of NASA’s decision-making process is further threatened by the current leadership transition at the agency. “Launch fever” is not a frame of mind conducive to dispassionate consideration of ambiguous or unsatisfactory situations. Debris damage studies are to be delivered late this week, and on April 14 NASA will conduct a test of Discovery's external fuel tank as the shuttle sits on the launch pad in Floridaīy this point, shuttle program veterans have said, thousands of workers will be deeply engaged in the momentum towards the Discovery launch, the window for which opens on May 15. At that time, the group will review NASA safety reports now being completed. Sources close to the Stafford-Covey group who spoke with on condition their names not be used said a new plenary meeting had been scheduled for April 22-23. NASA spokesman Allard Beutel characterized the meeting as "a status check, an administrative meeting to find out where they are in getting NASA’s information they need.” The revolt's basic premise, this source said, was that NASA was not ready to fly since “none of the hard recommendations have been met and NASA is ‘diddling’ with the numbers to make it appear they are working.”Ī short-notice meeting held in Washington on Monday between the Stafford-Covey group leaders and NASA managers lasted well into mid-afternoon. “I heard things went non-linear on the first day when Dan Crippen basically led a revolt," against Tom Stafford and Richard Covey, the two former astronauts leading the group, the CAIB member told on condition of anonymity. Ostensibly, the delay was due to NASA’s tardiness in providing required test data, but the larger question seemed to be whether the task group will have enough time to properly assess the test data, whenever it does show up.Ī member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board said he was told the dispute at the private meeting was more alarming than just a bureaucratic delay. Rumors began spreading about major disagreements erupting between board members at a private plenary meeting. The task group was organized by NASA a year ago as a way to independently monitor the agency's progress in meeting those recommendations.Ī scheduled public meeting to discuss the remaining issues before the task group was cancelled last week, surprising observers. 1, 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board published an in-depth analysis of both the technical and underlying cultural flaws that led to the disaster and issued specific prescriptions for hardware, operational, and cultural fixes. Seven months after the space shuttle Columbia and its crew were lost on Feb.
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