Flight International online news 10:30 GMT: NASA management has been accused of arrogance and substandard engineering in the final report of the Return to Flight Task Group (RTFTG), which monitored NASA's implementation of the Columbia accident investigation board (CAIB) recommendations.
Photo: NASA
The RTFTG’s final report’s executive summary states that there was a lack of engineering rigor and discipline regarding foam shedding analysis and Task Group members cited an absence of managerial accountability and arrogance that saw ideas dismissed out of hand.
Set up in July 2003 RTFTG was to monitor NASA’s actions on 15 of the 29 CAIB recommendations, which included ending external tank foam shedding and hardening the orbiter against impacts.
Neither of these were met by NASA and several RTFTG members concluded that, "It appears to us that lessons that should have been learned have not been… We expected that NASA leadership would set high standards for post-Columbia work...we were, overall disappointed".
The shuttle fleet is now grounded indefinitely because of dangerous foam shedding on Discovery’s launch on 26 July for mission STS 114. The RTFTG was led by former Apollo 10 commander General Thomas Stafford and former shuttle astronaut Richard Covey.
Despite the foam loss problems on mission STS 114 Stafford and Covey agreed at the final report press conference that RTFTG did not need to continue.
Stafford cited the new Independent Technical Authority as an organisation that could continue the monitoring.
ROB COPPINGER / LONDON
Source: Flight International
