CAPE CANAVERAL - A rocket
fuel fire during atmospheric re-entry that ended in explosions on the Edwards Air Force Base runway in 1983.
A launch pad fire with six
astronauts aboard a fully fueled shuttle in 1984.
A brake failure and blown
tire during a 1985 landing with a U.S. Senator aboard.
An orbital debris strike in
1992 that caused the type of wing damage that doomed Columbia and seven
astronauts in 2003.
Amid the final push to
return NASA's shuttle fleet to service, senior managers at Johnson Space Center in Houston are taking time to review the harrowing details of a dozen past
shuttle missions that nearly ended in disaster.
"The idea is to just
increase awareness and have everybody on their toes," said Bob Holkan,
president of MTS Global Inc., a Houston-based management and technical services
company that has been researching and
documenting the close calls.
"You know, there is
not a lot of difference between a close call and an accident."
The look-back is well
warranted. Seven astronauts are preparing to board Discovery on July 13 for a
test flight to the International Space Station, and near-catastrophic problems
have cropped up at least one in 10 shuttle missions to date.
Shuttle managers decided in
January to develop a "close call awareness" program "as a way to
provide increased, program-wide focus on attention to detail."
Deputy shuttle program
manager Wayne Hale came up with the idea at a risk conference in California in 2004. Jim Lovell, commander of the Apollo 13 mission, recounted how a chain
of seemingly minor events over the course of four or five years led to the fuel
tank explosion that crippled the spaceship and prompted a now-legendary effort
to get the crew home safe.
"I was amazed at the
number of NASA people in that room that had never heard that part of the story.
It was news to them. There is history here that is not getting to the right
people," Hale said.
A note to shuttle program
workers was issued to solicit suggested cases, and 12 were selected.
MTS Global was hired in
February to research the cases and develop two products: PowerPoint
presentations for use at JSC senior staff meetings and associated "white
papers" that provide further detail.
Former astronaut Steve
Hawley, who now heads a JSC science directorate, briefed senior staff on the
1984 launch pad fire.
With Discovery perched on
launch pad 39A for its first flight, the main engines ignited and then shut down
four seconds before liftoff when a fuel valve failed.
Explosive liquid hydrogen
leaked and ignited, burning for at least 12 minutes as six astronauts scurried
from shuttle.
A water spray system on the
pad extinguished the fire, but managers never ordered the astronauts, including
Hawley, to evacuate gantry. They lacked confidence in the metal baskets that
would whisk astronauts down a 1,200-foot cable to the ground.
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Fixing
NASA: Complete Coverage of Space Shuttle Return to Flight
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