CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In a swift response to recommendations from Congress, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe for the second time amended the charter under which the Columbia Accident Investigation Board would operate to further enhance the board's independence from the space agency.
And just as quickly, it appears some members of Congress still aren't happy.
According to a NASA statement, the changes to the charter removes any requirement, either real or perceived, that asks the board to coordinate or await approval from NASA for any dimension of the panel's investigation.
The board is lead by U.S. Navy Admiral Hal Gehman and includes some of the nation's most experienced accident and aviation mishap investigators.
"NASA will do whatever it takes to ensure the integrity of the Gehman Board as it works to identify the cause of this horrific accident," O'Keefe said.
The Gehman Board was formed by O'Keefe in the hours following the Feb. 1 loss of Columbia and its crew, and since then has received a healthy dose of criticism from members of Congress who were concerned the board was not too closely tied to NASA.
O'Keefe already had amended the charter once to clarify the board's independence, but that apparently wasn't enough to satisfy Congress as the concern was repeated Wednesday at the first joint hearing into the Columbia tragedy.
"The words of the charter simply do not guarantee the independence and latitude that both the Administrator and the Admiral have sincerely promised," said U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., who chairs the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
"The charter's words need to match everyone's intent now to avoid any problems later. I also continue to believe that several more members should be added to the Board to ensure that it has the appropriate breadth of experience and expertise," Boehlert said.
In a letter sent to Gehman by O'Keefe late Wednesday, the NASA chief described some of the changes to the board's charter.
"Exercising an overabundance of caution," O'Keefe wrote. "I have taken the liberty of removing any reference to NASA oversight or review of your efforts, deleted any reference to a time frame for reporting other than at your determination, and have specified that the Board provide a public release of the report upon the conclusion of your deliberations."
O'Keefe also acknowledged the need to expand the board's membership to enhance its expertise and independence from NASA and promised Gehman full cooperation.
"If in our zeal to expand your flexibility and remove any inference of NASA oversight we have inadvertently caused new unintended consequences, please advise and we will endeavor to remove any obstacles to the Board's effort to reach conclusions," O'Keefe wrote.
On Thursday some of those unintended consequences started popping up.
The early indications are the OKeefes latest round of changes could receive a rough reception on the Hill. Congressional sources said that the revised charter would be scrutinized with an eye to compliance with the wishes lawmakers expressed at Wednesday's hearing.
Congressional staffers said they did not know that changes had been made before media inquiries alerted them that NASA had made the information public.
NASA posted the changes to its website Thursday, bypassing the usual courtesy of giving advance notice to Congress before public release of such information.
The Gehman Board is at the Kennedy Space Center for a second day today. During the next three days they plan to visit NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans before returning to Houston late Saturday.
"This is part of our education process. We are not going to be doing a whole lot of real serious investigating while we're here," Gehman said Wednesday at KSC.
To read the complete board charter on the Web, see
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