Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Nelson: Safety office a positive change
By SANDRA FREDERICK
NEWS-JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Reacting to the space shuttle Columbia accident report, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on Tuesday told reporters that problems were to be expected with the corners cut because of budget restraints.
“We can´t do space flight cheap,” the Brevard County Democrat said during an informal press conference Tuesday at Kennedy Space Center, hours after the Columbia Accident Investigation Board released its 248-page report. “Space flight is a risky business.”
Nelson, who flew on the Columbia in January 1986 and is a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, said problems were inevitable because the budgets of the international space station and the shuttle program were “melted into one pot.” He said officials were siphoning off the shuttle budget to fund the space station, leaving the shuttles vulnerable.
“I said it would come back to bite us, and it did,” he said.
The Columbia was crippled at liftoff when a piece of foam insulation from its fuel tank struck a wing. The shuttle fell apart over Texas during its Feb. 1 return to Earth.
Nelson blamed the disaster on lack of communication and said there is a need to create an internal culture at NASA to encourage openness from the bottom up.
Nelson said a safety office NASA is establishing will go a long way to help head off future problems. The safety office´s function will be to foster communication and stop fear of retaliation if an employee speaks out about errors, such as the fatal flaw to the external tiles caused by flying debris during takeoff.
NASA has had nothing to address such internal problems in the past, Nelson said.
He also said NASA recently asked Congress for $1.6 billion to return to space flight and was turned down. He expects it to be summer 2004 before the manned space program resumes.
Nelson stressed NASA didn´t learn its lesson from Challenger. Nelson made similar comments 17 years ago. He said Tuesday that, for two or three years, safety of the astronauts was the first priority.
“Then it started to slip,” he said. “We can´t afford major accidents due to human error like this again.”
A crew member of Columbia mission STS-61C, Nelson, who was a U.S. representative at the time, said his launch was delayed four times before it lifted off a month late.
On the fourth attempt to get into space, the launch was scrubbed due to a broken liquid oxygen sensor.
“It would not have been a good day if we had gone,” he said. “One of the prevalves was stuck in the open position and, when it came time for the third engine to cut down, it would have blown the entire back end of the shuttle off.”
The mission was a success. However, 10 days after Columbia landed, space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.
“It is human nature to be explorers and adventurers,” he said. “I hope we never have to go through something like this again.”
Special Report: THE COLUMBIA CHRONICLES |  |