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NASA Urged to Improve Shuttle Launch/Landing Surveillance
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 02:15 pm ET
01 July 2003
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The Columbia Accident Investigation Board released its fourth interim recommendation Tuesday, urging NASA to beef up its surveillance of space shuttles during launch and liftoff The Columbia Accident Investigation Board released its fourth interim recommendation Tuesday, urging NASA to beef up its surveillance of space shuttles during launch and liftoff. Specifically, the board calls for NASA to improve its ground-based imaging capabilities at the Kennedy Space Center and to consider using chase aircraft to film future shuttle flights as they lift off and speed toward orbit. During the launch of the Columbia STS 107 mission, which ended on Feb. 1 when the shuttle broke up during landing with seven astronauts aboard, two ground-based cameras provided usable data of foam striking the vehicle, the board said. A third camera, with a better view, was ultimately unusable. In issuing the recommendation, the board said that it feels that the space shuttle should be treated as a vehicle still in development, even though it has successfully flown to space 112 times and returned 111. The board also found that the long-range camera equipment currently used by Kennedy Space Center and the Air Force Eastern Range, are inadequate when it comes to providing the best possible engineering data during shuttle launches. Despite the availability of numerous imaging systems on the ground, the cameras are often inadequate or else obsolete, unprepared or susceptible to urban encroachment from nearby civilian structures. The evaluation of Columbia debris impacts and the effects of damage to Columbia's thermal protection system, the CAIB board cited, suffered from a lack of high-resolution and high-speed cameras. Furthermore, the report added, the imaging systems in use today have not been modified to reflect either changes in launch patterns associated with support missions to the International Space Station.
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