Launch Delays Cost NASA Extra $4 Million for Shuttle Oversight Board

CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA will end up spending three times more than anticipated to pay for an independent review of the agency's response to recommendations made by Columbia accident investigators.

The extra cost -- about $4 million -- is the result of significant delays in returning NASA's shuttle fleet to service.

The Return To Flight Task Group, headed by former astronauts Thomas Stafford and Dick Covey, will have its final meeting today in Washington. A summary of its final report will be delivered Tuesday morning to NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. He will then decide whether NASA should proceed with plans to launch Discovery in July on the first shuttle mission since the 2003 disaster.

Columbia and its seven astronauts were lost after a 1.7-pound chunk of foam insulation broke free from the shuttle's external tank 81 seconds after launch and blasted a 6- to 10-inch hole in a wing panel.

The damage went undetected during the 16-day flight. Hot gas blowtorched through the hole during atmospheric re-entry Feb. 1, 2003, and the shuttle disintegrated over Texas. There were no survivors.

NASA's former administrator, Sean O'Keefe, set up the Stafford-Covey group in July 2003 just before the release of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's report. Their job: provide the administrator with an outside assessment of actions taken by NASA's shuttle program to implement the safety fixes recommended by the accident board.

At the time, NASA expected to spend $2 million. But Dave Drachlis, spokesman for the Return To Flight Task Group, said that estimate was based on returning the shuttles to flight by December 2003.

The launch plans were pushed back repeatedly as NASA encountered technical difficulties while redesigning the external tank, developing an orbital inspection boom and putting in place a means for astronauts to make emergency repairs in space.

Now, task force operations are expected to cost $6 million, based on a return to flight in July. Drachlis said 90 percent of the money had been spent by late May.

Included in the total: the cost of an office near Johnson Space Center in Houston; hourly wages and travel expenses for the 26 members of the panel and 12 staffers; periodic rental of facilities for public meetings; and information technology support.

The group so far has held meetings in Brevard County, Houston, and Huntsville, Ala. Members also have visited NASA headquarters in Washington as well as contractor factories in Texas, Louisiana and Utah.

Task group members were paid at a rate equivalent to a federal government employee who makes $116,519 a year.

None of the members worked full time, however. Instead, they filed the number of hours worked and received an equivalent hourly rate: $55.83 an hour. Drachlis said board members averaged eight to 10 hours of task group work per week.

Five board members declined any pay, Drachlis said.

To date, the independent oversight group already has approved work NASA has done on 12 of 15 return to flight recommendations made by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The 26-member panel today will gauge NASA's work on the three that remain. Those recommendations involve:

• Initiating a program to eliminate debris shedding from shuttle external tanks.

• Initiating a program to increase the ability of shuttle orbiters to withstand minor debris damage.

• Developing a capability to inspect shuttle tiles and wing panels in orbit and make emergency repairs if necessary.

Drachlis said the panel did not expect any "showstoppers" to crop up at the final meeting, which is the first of several key events this week that could determine whether NASA can launch Discovery between July 13 and 31 as planned.

At Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday and Thursday, NASA will conduct a traditional flight readiness review for Discovery's test flight to the International Space Station. Barring any unresolved issues that could delay the launch, a firm launch date is expected to be announced at the end of the two-day conference.

If NASA scraps plans for a July launch, the next opportunity will come during a window from Sept. 9 to Sept. 24. 

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