Progress on meeting Columbia accident recommendations questioned by insiders
NASA will still be conducting critical Space Shuttle return-to-flight work just a few weeks before its proposed May launch of STS-144/Discovery. This is causing worry within the agency that launch schedule pressure is overcoming other concerns in the decision-making process.
A mission management team simulation has been scheduled for 3 May to meet the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's (CAIB) recommendation that the team be trained to deal with more mission scenarios. A team simulation in February did not cover all the possibilities and the lateness of such work and its proximity to the May/June launch window is a growing concern for NASA personnel.
"The problem is Space Shuttle programme [managers] no longer know what is the truth and what is their own propaganda, which they have started believing in.
"The process within the programme is broken. We are not doing all of the engineering in accordance with our own processes, or in the correct order," says a programme insider.
While NASA does not believe there is a major problem with Discovery, the insider says the agency does not have the paper trail to justify its public confidence to any independent body. Some Shuttle programme workers are hoping new NASA administrator Mike Griffin will put back the launch to at least July so all the necessary work can be completed.
Griffin says he will take the independent Return to Flight Task Group's advice on whether the agency has met the CAIB's 15 recommendations "very seriously", but he is adamant the final launch decision will be up to NASA.
ROB COPPINGER/LONDON
Source: Flight International
