With One Eye On Spring Shuttle Launch, Agency Vows Not To Fight CAIB Recommendations

NASA's deputy administrator this week said his agency won't challenge any of the recommendations from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), even as it gears up for what it hopes will be a Spring, 2004, return to flight. But in the rush to get shuttles back into orbit, the question is, will NASA really be willing to change the way it thinks? Nobody at the space agency is willing to say.

New Launch Window

Deputy administrator Fred Gregory, associate administrator for space flight Bill Readdy and associate administrator for safety Bryan O'Connor told reporters on Tuesday they're aiming for a very specific launch window to resume shuttle flights: March 11 to April 6.

“Is March ambitious? Probably,” Readdy said. Then he and the other top dogs went into the first-ever meeting of the Stafford-Covey Return To Flight Task Force, a 27-member body that is charged with implementing the CAIB recommendations.

“There will be no attempt whatsoever to argue or defend a recommendation from the CAIB,” Gregory said. “The board has not published the report yet and I may have to back off a little bit ... but my assumption is that we would follow to the letter the recommendations.”

Columbia, of course, disintegrated 38 miles over Texas on February 1st, as it re-entered the atmosphere after a two-week mission. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

What's Wrong With NASA Culture?

So what's all this about a culture change? CAIB members have cited an attitude of superiority at NASA, fear that lower-level employees would exact retribution for change-making decisions, problems in communicating and strained relations among NASA workers.“It would be difficult for me to define to you what the NASA culture is,” Gregory said. “As I sit here, I have three astronauts here. I suspect that if you try to determine what the culture of the three of us is, you would find that there are three different cultures here.”

Returning to flight may take more time than Gregory initially thought. Keep that launch window open.

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.caib.gov