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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- NASAs top space flight official ordered the space shuttle team to begin the planning activities for returning the space shuttle fleet to flight as early as this autumn.
On Wednesday, March 12, William Readdy, NASA associate administrator for space flight, signed the memorandum establishing a formal "Return-to-Flight" team. Readdy gave the approval following the funeral that day of U.S. Navy Capt. David Brown, the last of Columbias seven astronauts to be buried.
"We made a promise we were going to honor the crew by returning to flight," Readdy told reporters Friday. "We wanted to get the team focused on the return to flight effort."
NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe said NASA has no intention to put any of the agencys three remaining shuttle orbiters back in service before the Columbia Accident Investigation Board finds out what caused the loss of Columbia and issues its final report.
In the meantime, NASA will begin working through the issues it may need to address to resume space shuttle operations.
"The alternative is to sit here on our hands and wait for the report to be released," OKeefe said. "And we are not going to do that."
A preliminary action plan is due to be submitted to Readdy by April 1. Among the actions the Return-to-Flight team has been asked to consider are reviews of some of the leading popular possible contributors to the Columbia accident.
Readdy said NASA decisions to review various shuttle precautionary safety, as well as repair measures should not be construed as a NASA endorsement of any of the competing theories of what went wrong.
NASA is currently reviewing the following procedures:
- The feasibility of conducting on-orbit repair and inspection of the shuttles thermal protection system;
- Analysis of the foam insulation used on the shuttles external tank;
- Agency protocol for evaluating in-flight safety issues;
- The request of photographic and radar imagery of the shuttle on orbit.
Readdy said that for the Return-to-Flight team to not undertake a discussion of these and other issues would be to "ignore the elephant in the room."
He and OKeefe also addressed media reports that Readdy had asked a U.S. spy satellite agency -- namely, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency -- to produce high resolution imagery of Columbia during the final days of its mission.
The Washington Post said the alleged request came after space shuttle engineers at Johnson Space Center in Houston had come to the conclusion that the debris strike Columbia suffered during launch was not a "safety of flight issue." The article also said this indicated "that officials at headquarters -- including Readdy -- had some curiosity about potential risks to its crew." OKeefe said that all information pertaining to imagery requests has been turned over to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, the House and Senate intelligence committees, and the NASA Office of Inspector General.
"Its about judgement calls," OKeefe said when pressed to confirm details of the Washington Post story. "They [the accident investigation board, the intelligence committees and the inspector general] have all the information and thats as far as I want to go in discussing the origin of the information thats out there."
OKeefe said that he expects that the board and other bodies privy to the details ultimately will render an opinion about whether NASA judgement calls were indeed the right calls.
Readdy, for his part, denied making any direct requests for imagery from other government agencies. Rather, he said it was conveyed to him by "an individual from NASA headquarters" nearly two weeks into the 16-day mission that "an individual from another government agency" had heard about the external tank debris issue and "wanted to discuss an offer of support with respect to observing the space shuttle Columbia on orbit."
Readdy said the NASA official who visited him in his office with the offer said that NASA would have to request the support on an emergency or high priority basis. Given that NASAs analysis had determined there was no safety of flight issue, Readdy said, NASA could not justify making such a request. When it was relayed to Readdy that the government agency was willing to obtain imagery of Columbia that would not interfere with its own operations, Readdy said he told his go between to accept the offer.
By the time the other agency could have obtained imagery without interfering with non-NASA priorities, Readdy said, Columbias mission was over.
Excerpt Of Readdys Feb. 3, 2003 Statement to the CAIB
"An individual from NASA headquarters visited me in my office. He said that an individual from another agency had been discussing the external tank debris issue during STS-107 ascent. He wanted to discuss and offer of support from the other agency with respect to observing the space shuttle Columbia on orbit. He explained that NASA would have to request that support on an emergency or high priority basis. I explained that the [External Tank] debris and possible implications for left wing thermal protection systems had been analyzed and reported to the mission management team and documented in [Mission Evaluation Room] daily report of Flight Date 12 dated on [Jan.] 28th. My understanding was that the space shuttle program was well aware of those capabilities that could provided by the other agency and it had concluded, it being the space shuttle program, had concluded that the offer would not contribute to the analysis. I related that to the individual as well as the conclusion reached by the management team that there was no safety of flight issue. For those reasons there is no rationale to support requesting emergency or high priority support. He reiterated that the other agency desired to support on a "not to interfere" basis. I acknowledged this information and told him again that this was not viewed as a safety of flight issue.
I told him to accept the offer of support on a not to interfere basis."
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