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NASA Restructures Columbia Investigation Teams
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 06:00 pm ET
21 March 2003
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA is reorganizing its investigation of the shuttle Columbia tragedy to more closely resemble the structure now in use by the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), the space agency announced Friday. The changes are the result of requests recently made by CAIB chairman Harold Gehman, who was concerned that some of the senior shuttle managers who were overseeing NASA's investigation might themselves be the subject of the investigation. NASA's response is to disband the Mishap Response Team that was formed within minutes of the Feb. 1 disaster and replace it with the NASA Accident Investigation Team (NAIT). The NAIT chairman will be Randy Stone, deputy director of the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. In a NASA press release on Friday, Stone characterized the original NASA mishap team's work as "highly efficient, methodical and productive." "They have done a tremendous job under extremely difficult circumstances. Now, many of the initial mishap response activities are nearing their close, and it is time for NASA's accident support structure to transition to an organization designed to provide long term investigation support," Stone said. Just like the CAIB, the NAIT will be divided into three working groups that will cover different aspects of the investigation. Stone will manage the subdivision related to flight operations, such as Mission Control, flight planning and crew training functions. Frank Benz, director of engineering at JSC, will manage activities related to engineering and technology, such as debris, imagery and fault tree analyses. Jim Kennedy, deputy director of the Kennedy Space Center, will manage activities related to materials, such as vendors, maintenance, internal processes and program management. NASA officials also said Friday they expect the formal organized search for debris and recovery in the area of east Texas will be completed about May 1, depending on the weather. Another activity NASA is winding down in the coming days is its Emergency Operations Center, which assisted in fielding thousands of calls about Columbia and received almost 7,000 images from sources outside NASA. NASA said the final Mishap Response Team meeting was held Friday and that the NAIT will convene for the first time March 24.
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