"Is there a way to involve team members, as we plan on future missions, to respond to unexpected breakdowns that occur at the last minute?" asks Senator Bill Nelson, who himself flew on the Columbia shuttle in 1986.
A senator who is also a former astronaut said on Monday, 24/3 that space crews must be trained to perform repairs on the shuttle in future missions and must be informed about problems that occur so that they can play an important role in the solution.
"Is there a way to involve team members, as we plan on future missions, to respond to unexpected breakdowns that occur at the last minute?" asks Senator Bill Nelson, who himself flew on the Columbia shuttle in 1986.
Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, is a member of the Senate Science, Technology and Space Committee investigating NASA. Last week, he asked members of the Columbia Disaster Investigation Committee to assess whether the control center understood the severity of Columbia's problem during reentry.
NASA officials said there was no way crew members could have repaired the tiles damaged during the Jan. 16 launch, when pieces of insulating foam broke off from the shuttle's outer tank and hit the left wing.
Nelson said future crew members need to be trained and given the tools to repair such damage. He also blamed NASA for not requesting the use of the Bion Telescope to assess the damage to Columbia's insulation tiles, which were used to protect the shuttle during re-entry from the hot gases. NASA requested to use such a telescope, but withdrew the request.
"Should we have taken these pictures? Of course we had to," said Nelson. "It would have given us more information." Nelson also asked if NASA officials could have changed the reentry plan, for example by changing the angle to reduce the load on the left wing.
