Friday, September 12, 2003
NASA packs up shuttle debris
By SANDRA FREDERICK
NEWS-JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — NASA has taken a bold step toward changing its attitude by sharing information gathered during its reconstruction of Shuttle Columbia, which exploded on re-entry into the Earth´s atmosphere Feb. 1.
“NASA is not going to put Columbia away forever like it did Challenger,” Scott Thurston, vehicle manager of Columbia, said Thursday as workers packed mangled parts into boxes. “We are open to research and development and to see what we can learn from the hardware left from Columbia.”
College students, industry experts and NASA consultants are among those who could examine shuttle parts after their requests are approved by a screening committee.
The space agency was publicly reprimanded by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board for its closed internal culture, which it said may have led, in part, to the disaster. A 248-page final report released Aug. 26 stated employees may have known about the critical damage to the insulation of the shuttle during liftoff but were afraid to speak up.
Thurston said the report had nothing to do with the open approach NASA is taking this time around.
“The recommendation to do this was made in March and was not influenced by the CBIA report,” he said.
Following the Challenger accident Jan. 28, 1986, the space agency stored the recovered parts in two missile silos at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA Chief Sean O´Keefe vowed that will not happen with Columbia.
The boxed debris will be trucked to the 16th floor of the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC where 6,800 square feet of floor space has been dedicated for its storage. Each of the 83,800 parts - 38 percent of the orbiter - has been cataloged.
Officials hope to have the 50,000-square-foot hangar cleared by Oct. 1.
“This is rough for me,” said Carl Vita, a technician with NASA´s contractor, United Space Alliance, as he viewed pieces of the fuselage he used to work on.
Some of the largest pieces of the orbiter recovered include the landing gear, window frames, tires and airlock tunnel hatches. It is too early to decide if any parts of Columbia will be displayed in public or go to national museums, Thurston said.
Several museums, towns and historical societies have requested debris, but the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington has the right of first refusal for all excess NASA property.
“They know our interest and they´re considering a variety of options,” said museum space history curator Valerie Neal, who has toured the debris spread out in a space center hangar.
The interest of private researchers who request access to the ship´s parts will be weighed by a committee made up of NASA employees. They´ll get input from the seven astronauts´ family members when reviewing requests.
Astronaut Kevin Kregel, who flew on Columbia in 1996 and 1997, got a last-minute tour of the debris earlier this week to glean any lessons about the breakup of the hypersonic aircraft before the pieces are stored away.
“You see some of the debris and you see why some pieces survived and others didn´t,” he said. “You have all this evidence here that can help.”
About 40,000 shuttle pieces were never identified, and more debris continues to arrive from Texas.
Thurston said it is a good feeling knowing NASA will keep the legacy of Columbia alive.
“We have to do everything we can to make sure this doesn´t happen again.”
Facts about debris recovery:
– The total number of Kennedy Space Center workers at debris recovery sites: 870.
– Total number of all workers at debris recovery sites: 16,500.
– Total number of man-hours spent in search and recovery efforts: 1.5 million.
– Total number of man-hours spent in reconstruction process: nearly 150,000.
– Total number of Debris Reconstruction Team members: 150.
– Total pounds of debris retrieved: 84,900.
SOURCE: NASA. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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