Says Program Suffers Lack Of Direction, Morale
NASA's Constellation program is besieged by a lack of morale,
money and direction, according to the space agency's safety
panel.
The Associated Press reports those were the findings of the
Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel's 143-page annual report, released
Monday. Overall, the report is generally impressed with NASA's
safety programs... but the safety panel also cites "surprising
anxiety among NASA employees" about many aspects of Constellation,
particularly -- and, perhaps, most troubling -- in areas related to
astronaut safety.
Constellation is the catch-all name for NASA's next-generation
manned spacecraft program, intended to transport crews to the
International Space Station, and later to the Moon and Mars. It has
been fraught with issues since its inception... from reported
vibration issues with the Ares I launch vehicle, to difficulties
securing necessary funding, to delays in development
timetables.
As ANN reported, the first manned flight of
the Orion space program is tentatively scheduled to occur no later
than March 2015... just a shade under five years after the last
space shuttle mission is flown. NASA had hoped to accomplish
Orion's first manned launch two years sooner, but last month the
agency announced that's highly unlikely.
NASA still holds out hope a manned Orion launch may happen in
September 2014, but the agency will only publicly commit to the
2015 date.
NASA announced Monday it has "re-aligned" a
number of program development tasks, in an attempt to meet the
revised schedule.
But timing may be the least of Orion's woes. Noting past NASA
spacecraft were built with sufficient backup systems "to ensure
safety and reliability," the ASAP report claims NASA has taken a
different approach in designing the next-generation Orion manned
spacecraft -- one "without all safeguards included" from the
beginning. Due to weight issues plaguing Orion, any additional
safety feature must "earn its way in" to the design, the report
adds.
That mindset doesn't sit well with several NASA workers... or
with the safety panel, which includes two former shuttle
astronauts. In its report, the panel said it is "concerned that
this process may not be capable of providing adequate protection
against hazards that will only come to light once the spacecraft is
in operation."
Jeff Hanley, NASA's Constellation program manager, said such
fears are unfounded. "That has made some folks uncomfortable, but
guess what? We're not done yet," Hanley said of the agency's view
on safety.
Hanley added his team "are not just blindly cutting out" backup
safety systems... and admitted "we're not going to please
everybody.
"If we tried to please everybody the spacecraft would not get
off the ground."