NASA's administrator reminded his employees Thursday as the space agency commemorated the dead crew members of Columbia, Challenger and Apollo that "the consequences of our errors are catastrophic." * The three disasters happened in different years, with differences of a few days on the calendar * The remains of the Columbia ferry were presented to the audience
NASA dedicates a day to the memory of the fallen astronauts * Sean O'Keefe places wreaths on the headstone in memory of the dead Challenger at Arlington Cemetery, Washington. In the background is also the headstone in memory of the dead of Colombia. Photo: NASA website
Kol Israel updates:
Former senior scientist at NASA, Don Nelson: the safety culture at the agency was eroded due to poor management and complacency and even today safety matters are not taken seriously.
Update 31 / 1 / 04
The remains of the shuttle Columbia were brought to a memorial site that NASA describes as a temple mixed with a laboratory. This was reported by the Reuters agency. NASA allowed reporters to view the remains in preparation for the first anniversary of the shuttle crash.
The US space agency opened to reporters for the first time the site where it collected the debris of the shuttle Columbia. The reporters were invited to witness the thousands of pieces, which were marked and arranged in commemoration of the anniversary of the ferry disaster that will be celebrated on Sunday.
The United States Space Agency announced that every last Thursday in January each year a ceremony will be held to commemorate the astronauts who were killed in three disasters, including the Columbia shuttle crash. Yesterday, the space agency held the memorial ceremony at all its sites. The ceremony was held three days before the one-year anniversary of the shuttle crash because that week also saw the other two disasters, the Apollo 67 fire in '86 and the Challenger crash in 'XNUMX.
NASA's administrator reminded his employees Thursday as the space agency commemorated the dead crew members of Columbia, Challenger and Apollo that "the consequences of our errors are catastrophic."
Director Sean O'Keefe said in a televised speech that space exploration involves risks, but that "complacency, indifference and lack of attention to detail" must not lead to disasters along the way. It should be a sacred value for all workers in the space program, he said.
Memorial Day falls three days before the anniversary of the Columbia disaster. O'Keefe said Memorial Day would return annually on the last Thursday of January, as close as possible to the three-year anniversary of the space program disasters.
A fire broke out in Apollo 1 during a test run of the countdown on January 27, 1967. Following the fire, the three astronauts died in the spacecraft on the launch pad. The Challenger exploded during takeoff on January 28, 1986. The explosion killed seven people. Columbia disintegrated during reentry on February 1, 2003, killing seven more astronauts.
O'Keefe felt suffocated as he read the names of the seventeen "who lost their lives because of our failure."
"Grissom, Witt, Chaffey, Scooby, Smith, McNair, Resnick, McAuliffe, Jarvis, Onizuka, Husband, McCall, Chawla, Anderson, Brown, Clark and Ramon."
"They are not here with us today, because in the most critical moments we failed. Therefore it is our duty to remember them not only today, not only once a year, not only on memorial days, but every day. Every day when the consequences of our mistakes are the occurrence of disasters. Each of these families will live with these consequences for the rest of their lives."
A minute's silence was observed at noon at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The flags were lowered to half-mast. Flags will remain at half-mast at NASA centers across the United States on Monday, when a Columbia crew memorial will be dedicated at Arlington Cemetery next to the Challenger crew memorial.
NASA employees also remember the two people who died in the helicopter crash in Texas last March, while searching for remains from Colombia, and all the flight pioneers who were killed in their attempts to break through the borders.
In his speech this afternoon, which was broadcast to NASA centers across the United States, O'Keefe announced that three peaks on Mars, which the two rovers of the space agency saw, would be called Grissom, Witt and Chaffee after members of the Apollo 1 crew. The US space agency called it Macbar for the two rovers' landing sites named after the Columbia and Challenger crews.
Onlookers have commented that the agency's leaders seem to be working hard to dispel the fear of retaliation in response to raising possible problems, a behavior that apparently played a part in the Columbia disaster.
"There is no doubt that this kind of attitude comes from the top down," says Jose Garcia, a retired space shuttle operations manager who reached the White House in 1995 with his complaints about the security cuts at NASA.
Garcia keeps in touch with his former colleagues, and rumor has it that "things are getting better; NASA is on the right track.” He worries that time will take its toll, as it did after the Challenger disaster, and that budget cuts and pressure to meet schedules will begin to pile up and threaten once again the progress he sees.
"The key here is to maintain the status quo," he said.
Dr. John Clark, a neurologist at NASA, who lost his wife Laurel in the Columbia disaster, is among those who are not satisfied with the progress made in the past year. He says he sees and hears enough to know that resistance continues at NASA.
"Those who don't find themselves in the report and work to improve things, are the ones who should go home," says Clark. "In other words, they accept the change while they themselves don't have to change."
Relics from the ferry will be shown to the audience
Almost 84 parts and fragments of the space shuttle "Columbia" have been found since it disintegrated upon entering the atmosphere on February 1, 2003. On the anniversary of the crash, NASA decided to establish a room at Cape Canaveral in Florida, the site from which the space shuttles are launched, to serve as a memorial museum.
The American media reports that only some of the fragments are displayed in the room, but the selected ones are easily recognizable: the frame of the front window of the shuttle, four wheels, the front door, the landing gear and more. The other remains, which came from the astronauts' cabin where they sat at the time of the crash, were decided to be stored in a separate room, closed to the public. "Columbia was a great spacecraft," said Michael Leinbach, the shuttle's launch manager. "We call this room Columbia's Arlington Cemetery."
The decision to present the fragments of "Columbia" to visitors is contrary to a decision made after the "Challenger" disaster - when it was decided to collect the fragments and bury them in two huge pits from which missiles are launched.
One year after the "Columbia" disaster: NASA is trying to present a change in the corporate culture
By Yuval Dror
For NASA, it seems that the days between January 27 and February 1 are the most dangerous of the year: the three fatal accidents that led to the death of 16 American astronauts and the first Israeli astronaut, Lt. Col. Ilan Ramon, took place on these days. On January 27, 1967, three astronauts were killed after a fire broke out before the launch of "Apollo-1"; The space shuttle "Challenger" exploded a few seconds after launch on January 28, 1986, and seven astronauts perished; The shuttle "Columbia" disintegrated while returning to Earth on February 1, 2003, an accident that resulted in the death of seven other astronauts, including Ramon.
On Thursday, a "Day of Remembrance" was noted. The agency marked the day with a minute of silence and remembered the tragic death of the 17 astronauts, and the death of two NASA personnel who were killed in a helicopter crash while searching for debris from the space shuttle Columbia. Tomorrow they will mark the crash of the shuttle. A year after the disaster, the agency is still beating on sin. "The seven astronauts are not with us because at the most important moment, we failed," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
The criticism leveled at NASA in the report of retired Admiral Harold Gaiman, who headed the investigative committee to investigate the crash, continues to echo in the corridors. Some of the astronauts' family members find it difficult to forgive. They claim that the culture of hiding and "covering up" in the field of flight safety has not yet taken root. And if that is not enough, it is not clear whether NASA will meet its goal - launching a space shuttle this October - because it has not finished correcting all the deficiencies.
The technical reason for the crash is clear: a piece of insulating foam that broke away from the fuel tank 81 seconds after launch hit the leading edge of the left wing and blew a hole, when it returned to the atmosphere, allowing hot gas to enter the shuttle's body. The gas caused the wing to fall and the shuttle to disintegrate.
But the Gaiman Commission's report makes it very clear that the Columbia crash was not only caused by a technical failure but also, and perhaps mainly, due to the way NASA manages the space program. "The inefficient leadership of the organization failed to fulfill its commitment to do everything possible to ensure the safety of the staff," the committee stated. The members of the committee pointed out a series of failures in NASA's conduct, both in the way the shuttle malfunction was handled after the damage was discovered, both in its ignoring over the years of similar malfunctions that passed peacefully, and in its general policy, which led to a continuous erosion of flight safety in favor of meeting deadlines, while continuous budget cuts.
The committee determined that the culture of ignoring safety issues began 20 years ago and that safety issues were gradually pushed aside. In the committee's opinion, another accident may occur in the future. "If the technical, organizational and cultural recommendations are not implemented, we will not make progress in preventing the possibility of another accident occurring," the report said.
In recent months, NASA has been trying to convince the American public that they have learned a lesson. Bill Reddy, deputy director of the agency, said he noticed "enormous changes" that took place at the agency after the accident.
The family members of the astronauts who perished in "Columbia" are not in a hurry to be impressed. Jonathan Clark, the husband of astronaut Laurel Clark, who is raising their nine-year-old child together, told the newspaper "USA Today" that he knows that NASA still has resistance to the changes being made in the agency following the disaster. "Some people say that they are in favor of change, but they believe that the change should be in another department, not in their department." Rona Ramon also said in interviews that if Ilan had heard about the omissions, he would certainly have expressed his disappointment.
O'Keefe repeats and emphasizes that this time, contrary to NASA's inability to adopt the recommendations after the Challenger disaster, there is a real change in NASA. "The only thing we do not intend to do is to bury the recommendations written after the Columbia disaster in some pit as we did in 1986 after Challenger," he said in a speech broadcast to NASA employees.
Since the disaster, a special task force has been overseeing NASA. Richard Covey, deputy director of the group, noted that NASA is trying to implement the committee's recommendations quickly. Despite this, the target date for launching "Atlantis" to the International Space Station has been postponed from September 12 to October 10, 2004, and if NASA does not implement the required changes, the shuttle launch will be postponed again.
According to Kobay, "NASA did not act quickly to adopt some of the recommendations and we do not think that NASA's rate of progress supports the intended launch date." However, he praised NASA's activity, which is trying to reduce the danger of insulation foam hitting the shuttle during launch, but said that the recommendations regarding NASA's management culture are more difficult to implement.
The agency tries to remain optimistic. President George W. Bush's plan to conquer space has energized NASA's top executives. These were quick to embrace the challenge to build new ferries. The agency's success in landing two space vehicles on Mars (especially in the face of the European failure) breathed new life into the organization. At NASA, employees are encouraged to sign e-mail messages sent to managers, not to hide and not to be afraid of reporting malfunctions. They hope the cultural change will allow the agency to recover from the trauma of the crash.
For the original news on CNN
They knew the Columbia disaster
