Innovative, Fast-Thinking, Adaptable...

By ANN Senior Editor Pete Combs

It's not that there haven't been problems. Since Discovery launched ten days ago, the shuttle crew has had to deal with falling foam, dangling gap-filler and tears in a thermal blanket. That a complex machine like the shuttle has issues is not unexpected. That NASA has returned the shuttle to flight with a new attitude is what impresses me most.

In fact, I like what I see because there have been problems with gap-filler and thermal blankets. What I like is NASA's innovation -- the ability to turn on a dime, think fast and act decisively. This is the NASA of Jim Lovell and Neil Armstrong.

Take the gap-filler problem. Again, it's probably an issue that came up in shuttle missions before the Columbia disaster two years ago -- but nobody was looking. But in the wake of Columbia's February 2003 disintegration, NASA is eyeing the shuttle like a small child on a busy street and the tiny strands of ceramic-covered fabric were caught in the brilliant glare of that ongoing scrutiny.

NASA engineers did this week what NASA engineers did in April, 1970 when Apollo 13 was nearly lost to an in-flight explosion (below). They worked around the clock to improvise ways for astronauts Jim Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise, Jr. to stay alive while they also improvised ways to get the crippled mission home.

Earlier this week, engineers on the ground created a hacksaw out of parts available to the astronauts, then told the astronauts themselves how to do the same. They created a repair mission for the EVA team and that mission was performed flawlessly. It was sort of like watching Robin Williams on stage -- the more he ad-libs, the better he performs. The tougher the pressure, the better the product.

Through all that's happened in space this week, I got the distinct impression that NASA's aversion to risk has certainly thawed. As X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis told me during last week's AirVenture 2005 in Oshkosh, WI, NASA has been virtually frozen by its aversion to risk and its unwillingness to deviate from a plan.

What a difference from the events leading up to the Columbia disaster -- and in that, you can see that NASA's culture has truly changed. As ANN reported two years ago, mission leaders refused to take seriously the possibility that the light-weight foam covering the shuttle's external fuel tank might flake off during launch and damage the orbiter.

Yet, right there on audio tape, recorded during a nationwide conference call, is the voice of Linda Ham (right), a shuttle manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston (TX):

"(T)he material properties and density of the foam wouldn't do any damage," shuttle manager Linda Ham said in a conversation with engineer Don McCormick. "Really, I don't think there is much we can do," Ham said in the January 21st conference call. "It's not really a factor during the flight because there isn't much we can do about it."

Now, NASA engineers are aggressively -- some might say, too aggressively -- monitoring each possible source of danger to the spacecraft and its crew. And with the sort of pluck made famous by beleaguered cosmonauts aboard Russia's Mir space station, engineers on the ground and crews in space are determined to fix those problems, weed out those malfunctions and protect themselves without failure.

It's simply spirit. Pioneering spirit.

Later today (Thursday), the Discovery crew will pay special tribute to their colleagues lost aboard Columbia. But as they mourn that loss, I hope they celebrate the fact that, like the Phoenix, NASA has been reborn in the flames that consumed Columbia upon re-entry. For the first time in two years, I believe we really will reach the Moon, Mars and Beyond.

FMI: www.nasa.gov