Blomberg told Space News in a Feb. 4 telephone interview that he felt his comments had been taken out of context by some media organizations.

"I clearly was not talking about immediate flight risks," he said. "I was talking about the long term planning and the fact that the planning horizon was not realistic if the shuttle was not going to be replaced any time soon."

Blomberg was in London when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentry Feb.1. When he returned home Monday night, he was chagrinned to see that his comments had been taken out of context by a host of media outlets.

Blomberg has since been trying to set the record straight and has been deluged with phone calls and interview requests from the media.

Blomberg also told Space News that he doesnt believe that the loss of Columbia is due to NASA or its contractors shirking their commitment to safety.

"The safety processes were, if anything, more robust than ever," he said.

Congressional staffers present at the April 18 hearing also said they felt Blombergs comments had been largely misconstrued. They said lawmakers took from his comments that NASA is not shortchanging safety today, but that if the agency wishes to continue flying safely into the next decade, larger investments need to be made in upgrades.

By November 2002, NASA appeared ready to do just that. An amendment to NASAs 2003 budget request sent to Congress by the White House asked that an additional $470 million be provided for a space shuttle Service Life Extension Program.

Asked if the request for additional funds was responsive to the advisory panels recommendations, Blomberg said: "Im not a budget expert, so I dont know whether thats adequate, too much or too little but its certainly in the right spirit".

Blomberg also said he does not believe that NASAs dismissal of advisory panel members in early 2002 had anything to do with the groups conclusions. Blomberg, who resigned his position as chairman of the panel April 1, 2001, said that while he did not agree with NASAs conclusion that more turnover in the panels membership was needed, he said he does not believe NASA was trying to silence dissenting opinions.

"People in Washington know you dont silence people by letting them go it just loosens their tongues," he said.

NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said the decision to replace members of the aerospace safety advisory panel dates back to a 1997 by the U.S. space agency's Inspector General expressing concern about the length of service of panel members.

In 2001, Jacobs said, a NASA internal report came to the same conclusion. He said the changes in the panel's composition were unrelated to the panel's findings about the space shuttle program.

Robert Walker, chairman of the Wexler Group and the former chair of the House Science Committee, said the additional money for shuttle upgrades also reflected a decision by NASA in 2001 to push back the projected retirement date for shuttle from 2012 to 2020 or later.

Walker also said he felt Blombergs testimony had been taken out of context.

"What he was concerned about was the talk that NASA was going to continue using the shuttle out to 2020," Walker said. "A lot of us who have looked at this program agreed that in order to have a shuttle that operates [that long] you are going to have to spend a lot of money in upgrades to keep it flying safely."

Walker said the perspective was different when NASA though it would phase out the shuttle around 2012. In that scenario, he said, it makes more sense to focus investment on the new technologies needed for the new vehicle.

"I dont believe that agency was compromising safety by starving [the shuttle program] for funds," he said. "I spent a year looking at this stuff and I really dont think thats a legitimate criticism."

Walker served as chair of the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The commissions report, delivered to the White House and Congress in late 2002, recommended an increased investment in the crumbling ground infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Station, the United States primary launch facilities.

Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator for policy and plans who now consults to the aerospace industry, agreed that too much was being made of Blombergs warnings by the media.

"Blomberg did not say it was unsafe now, he said it would be in 10 years if NASA didnt increase its investment," she said.

"Every single time we fly we believe it is safe or we wouldnt do it," Garver said.