Says He Was "Sickened" By Columbia Tragedy

Retired USAF Brigadier General Chuck Yeager is not known as a man to mince words.

He lived up to that reputation earlier this week in addressing the 41st Space Congress. Speaking of the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, Yeager told the assembly, "It just kind of makes you sick when you look at people not paying attention to what is going on outside the aircraft."

Of NASA, Yeager noted the recent success of the twin Mars rovers. "Maybe they ought to stick to unmanned space exploration because they sure as hell aren't very good at flying safely."

The venerable test pilot told the NASA and Air Force attendees that the space agency didn't seem to have learned anything in the 17 years between the first shuttle disaster, which destroyed Challenger shortly after its launch in February 1986, and the Columbia accident just 14 months ago. He said NASA should have paid more attention to the problem of foam flaking off the shuttle's main fuel tank as the space plane blasted into orbit. "That should have been a warning to a lot of people," he said. "The way the hierarchy and bureaucracy at NASA works, it wasn't. Hopefully, they've learned their lesson."

There's no word of any official reaction from NASA, which is now reconfiguring and retesting the remaining shuttles in hopes of returning to flight next year.

FMI: www.nasa.gov