Stafford-Covey Group Finding Probably Won't Cause Launch
Delay
Just three weeks before the space shuttles' Return to Flight, a
NASA advisory group says the space agency has failed to address
three critical safety issues: eliminating critical launch debris,
harden the shuttle against debris impact and figure out a way to
repair the orbiter's heat shield in orbit.
"[The] recommendations have words in there that say 'thou shall
do this,' " panel member Joseph Cuzzupoli said, quoted by the
Orlando Sentinel. "They [NASA] have not answered per the words....
But from an operational readiness to fly, the data they presented
to us so far says it's safe to fly."
Panel members, led by former astronauts Thomas Stafford and
Richard Covey, spoke Monday after their final meeting -- the
culmination of two years' work on safety improvements in the wake
of the Columbia disaster. The task force was split in its opinion,
however. Its findings are not binding upon NASA and are not
expected to delay the July 13th launch of Discovery on the first
shuttle mission since the February 1st, 2003, Columbia
disintegration.
"As an engineer, I know that a vigorous discussion of these
complex issues can make us smarter," NASA Administrator Griffin
said in a prepared statement Monday. "I anticipate, and expect, a
healthy debate in our upcoming Flight Readiness Review."
That review takes place on Thursday and is expected to clear the
way for Discovery's launch next month.
"We found that NASA fell short of meeting that recommendation,
although they had put forth a yeoman's effort in coming up with all
of the options they could conceive of," panel member James Adamson
told reporters. "We have said that NASA has not eliminated all
critical debris. While that's true, we also say they have
significantly reduced debris, and we are very convinced that while
they may not have fully met the [recommendation's] intent as we
have defined it, they have significantly improved on all of these
things."
A separate safety review centered on debris mitigation last week
deemed the effort "acceptable."
NASA engineers have decided not to research a way to harden the
space plane's carbon-carbon heat tiles against debris impact.
Instead, they plan to retire the surviving shuttle fleet by
2010.
"You can't legislate that people should be smart," NASA
Administrator Michael Griffin told the Sentinel Monday. "We have
spent a goodly sum of money, many millions of dollars, trying to
figure out how to do this, and we've not yet been successful. It's
a very difficult technical problem."