COLUMBIA CRASH: It might have been possible to rescue the seven astronauts who died last February in the Columbia space shuttle tragedy, according to an independent report on the accident. Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor reports.
The report was scathing of shuttle operator NASA's management failings, and suggested the shuttle should come out of service "as soon as possible".
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) was set up within days of the February 1st loss of the shuttle Columbia and its full crew. Damage to the left wing during takeoff was cited as the physical cause of Columbia's break-up at 140,000 feet during re-entry, but the Board placed equal blame at the feet of NASA.
It concluded that "NASA's management system is unsafe to manage the shuttle system beyond the short term and that the agency does not have a strong safety culture". It had learned little and changed little in the years since the last fatal shuttle accident in 1986 when the Challenger was lost with all seven crew, according to the report.
NASA mission managers fell into the habit of accepting flaws in the shuttle system as normal, the report claimed. "These repeating patterns mean that flawed practices embedded in NASA's organisational system continued for 20 years and made substantial contributions to both accidents," the 248-page report stated.
"The board strongly believes that if these persistent, systemic flaws are not resolved, the scene is set for another accident."
Columbia's left wing was damaged 80 seconds after takeoff last January at the start of a 16-day mission when a piece of foam insulation broke away from an external fuel tank and hit the wing's leading edge at high speed. The impact was captured on film but no signs of damage were visible.
CAIB investigators were later shocked when during tests they were able to punch large holes in shuttle wing surfaces using fast moving pieces of the otherwise lightweight foam. Foam strikes were a common feature of shuttle lift-offs and NASA engineers had concluded it posed no threat to shuttle systems.
"The destruction of the crew module took place over a period of 24 seconds beginning at an altitude of approximately 140,000 feet," the report states, with death caused by blunt trauma and loss of oxygen.
A particularly tragic element of the report concludes that it might have been possible to save the crew if spy planes had been used to search for damage. The shuttle Atlantis was set for a March launch and could have been got ready for a rescue mission during the period from February 10th through 15th. Columbia's crew had enough air to remain safe until at least the 15th, the report says.
Weather records showed that a launch was possible at that time. Under the scenario proposed by CAIB, a four-person crew would fly Atlantis for a rendezvous with Columbia. Space suited astronauts from the stricken craft would have transferred to Atlantis via space walks, with the 11 astronauts being brought back to Earth.
Columbia would then either have been crashed into the Pacific Ocean or moved to a higher orbit for later repairs.
NASA had already accepted the report's findings in full and would make all 29 recommended changes. "The findings and recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board will serve as NASA's blueprint," according to the agency's administrator, Mr Sean O'Keefe.
NASA will struggle to recover from the severity of the CAIB report's conclusions, which were extremely harsh. The report cited "ineffective leadership" within NASA "that failed to fulfil the implicit contract to do whatever is possible to ensure the safety of the crew". The Board also concluded that its recommendations "will be difficult to accomplish and will be internally resisted".
In a further blow to NASA's hopes to maintain manned flights, the report concludes "it is in the nation's interest to replace the shuttle as soon as possible as the primary means for transporting humans to and from Earth orbit". NASA has no other manned flight launch vehicle and with the two remaining shuttles grounded, only Russia retains a launch vehicle that could bring astronauts safely into orbit. - (Additional reporting Reuters, AP)
