The cost of adapting the ferries to the commission's requirements could continue over three years, O'Keefe said. NASA spent $94 million on improvements in fiscal year 2003. Current plans are to spend $265 million in 2004 and $235 million in 2005.
The safety improvements in the ferry fleet, which was required following the Columbia disaster, may cost approximately 700 million dollars. This is what NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said last Thursday.
The three remaining shuttles have been grounded since the Columbia disaster. The return to flight is planned for March 2005, but O'Keefe said that the safety requirements raised by the members of the Commission of Inquiry into the Columbia disaster will be carried out despite the fear of further delays in the schedule.
The cost of adapting the ferries to the commission's requirements could continue over three years, O'Keefe said.
NASA spent $94 million on improvements in fiscal year 2003. Current plans are to spend $265 million in 2004 and $235 million in 2005.
"All in all, we will reach an amount of 600-700 million dollars, to implement all the findings and recommendations," O'Keefe told members of the Senate's science and transportation committees.
The members of the investigative committee recommended making massive changes, including improving the thermal protection system and adding a way to check and repair faults on the outside of the shuttles while they are in orbit. The committee also asked NASA to fix the 'broken safety culture'. To do this, NASA will appoint an engineering/technical authority separate from the rest of the shuttle's ground crews to monitor safety, and which will report directly to NASA headquarters.
O'Keefe said that his cost estimate includes the establishment of the safety authority. It also includes the cost of replacing parts on all three shuttles to fix another 20-year-old fault that was recently discovered. The fault that was discovered is the reverse installation of the gears of the shuttle Discovery's braking system, in a way that could have caused the system to collapse during an emergency landing.
