NASA Says Fleet Could Fly Again by September
Despite a critical
report by the investigating commission, NASA officials said on
Tuesday the space shuttle fleet -- grounded since last year's
Columbia disaster -- could fly again by September.
"There's not a show-stopper that says we can't get there," NASA's
Michael Kostelnik said of a possible launch window of Sept. 12-Oct.
10. At the same time, he and other space agency officials
acknowledged in a telephone news conference that there is much to
be done before then.
Five days before the anniversary of shuttle Columbia's fatal
Feb. 1 mid-air disintegration, NASA was at pains to show progress
following a scathing probe of the tragedy's underlying causes and a
report released last week that said the shuttles were nowhere near
ready to return to flight.
"It's been a tough year, it's been a hard year, it's been a year
full of lessons," said former astronaut William Readdy, now NASA's
associate administrator for space flight. "We're about fixing the
problems right now and returning to flying safely again."
Readdy said NASA is addressing problems with the shuttles'
reinforced carbon-carbon material, which covers parts of the
vehicles' wings. This material was damaged by falling insulation
foam during Columbia's launch, allowing superheated gas to
penetrate the craft and cause its break-up during re-entry. All
seven astronauts were killed.
NASA is working to
develop a way to spot and repair damage to the shuttles while they
are in orbit, said Michael Greenfield, the agency's associate
deputy administrator for technical programs. Greenfield said
testing should be complete in time for a shuttle mission "in the
fall of this year."
This may not tally with a report released on Jan. 20 by an
independent expert panel that is monitoring NASA's return to
shuttle flight. The panel found that schedule pressure had become a
"destructive force" at NASA, and that plans to correct this were
"in development." The report also said it was too early to say when
the shuttles might fly again.
This report was released less than a week after President Bush
(news - web sites) unveiled a vision for space that includes a
human mission to the moon by 2020 and an eventual human mission to
Mars. This vision also provides for retiring the shuttle fleet by
2010, after the International Space Station (news - web sites) is
complete.
While Russian vehicles can ferry supplies and personnel to the
orbiting outpost, only space shuttles can lift the heavy loads
needed to continue construction.
Beyond the immediate physical problems that caused the Columbia
accident, Readdy said the agency was also targeting those
"cultural" problems at NASA that were specified as underlying
causes by the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board
last August.
Noting the board's criticism of NASA's internal communication
about safety issues, Readdy said members of the space shuttle team
were sent to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,
mission control for the robotic Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity,
to see operations there.
When controllers at the lab had to contend with a lost
communications signal from the rover Spirit, Readdy said, "It was
very instructive for us to see how they went about their
fact-finding, trouble-shooting process."