The members of the committee that investigated the functioning of the agency found serious deficiencies in its management and claimed that risks were taken based on the success of previous flights. * The next flight is in March
NASA skipped some of the improvements needed to meet an unrealistic launch date for the first flight after the Columbia disaster. This is what some members of the investigative committee, who criticize the agency's conduct, claim.
Seven members of the task force that investigated NASA's performance to ensure that it fulfilled the conclusions of the first commission of inquiry, said that NASA did not learn the lessons of the disaster. In the document they attached to the committee's final report, the seven researchers stated that they found serious deficiencies in the management of the space agency in the field of engineering and in the tight schedule of the shuttle program. Thus, for example, the engineers redesigned the outer fuel tank of the space shuttle, before ascertaining the degree of durability of the heat protection layer.
The separate report states that NASA was too right to take risks relying on the success of previous flights, and did not treat pieces that fell from the fuel tank as a safety problem, but as a maintenance problem, which can be postponed. The report was written before the launch of the space shuttle "Discovery" last month, which also had similar malfunctions.
Poor leadership meant that getting Discovery back into space was more complex, expensive and prolonged than it should have been, report the seven members of the task force.
In fact, some of the worrisome traits that contributed to the Columbia disaster such as smugness, domineering managers in key positions - were still found in the agency ahead of the launch in July.
"We expected NASA's leadership to produce high standards in the post-Columbia era. We were very disappointed." They write in a report published on Wednesday.
At a press conference Thursday, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said he knew some members of the task force had expressed concerns, and he urged members "to speak up." including the official audit report issued by the group members.
"I want to hear them," Griffin said. "At NASA we do not shrink from criticism of our engineering processes, our decisions or anything else. We will listen to the review, evaluate what is said in it, make decisions, and move on.
Next shuttle flight: March 2006NASA has set March 2006 as the target for the next shuttle mission -STS-121. This will be the second test launch to the International Space Station in the shuttle reentry series.
Tiger crews continue to investigate the foam falling from Discovery's external fuel tank during the July 26 launch.
William Gerstenmeier, NASA's assistant administrator for space activities, said that the teams have identified the main areas of concern and they have made good progress in dealing with the problems.
It was also decided that the flight would be carried out in Discovery and not in Atlantis, to allow NASA to use Atlantis for more important missions on the space station. Atlantis will fly right after it, on mission STS-115, when it will bring to the station the beam too heavy to be carried by Discovery. By changing the order, it will not be necessary to fly back to back with Atlantis as previously planned.
Meanwhile, preparations are being completed for the transfer of Discovery from the Dryden Flight Test Center in California to the Kennedy Space Center on a Boeing 747 that has been adapted for this purpose. The transfer was supposed to take place on Thursday but was postponed to today - Friday 19/8 in the early morning hours, and it will arrive after a few refuelings in Florida on Saturday afternoon.
