The Hindu : U.S. space missions on hold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 03, 2003

International

International

U.S. space missions on hold

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington FEB. 2. The three independent panels that will take up the investigation of the crash of the space shuttle Columbia on Saturday will look into all aspects of the tragedy, including the information collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the final minutes of the descent that saw the spacecraft breaking up at a height of 200,000 feet over the State of Texas. According to officials of the NASA, the data under tight scrutiny, will include transmissions from the crew and the analysis of debris and data collected by various Government agencies including the military.

"We will be poring over that data 24 hours a day for the foreseeable future'', remarked the project director of the shuttle, Ron Dittemore.

The losses of the Challenger in 1986 and the Columbia yesterday leaves the NASA with only three more shuttles — the Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour.

NASA is saying that while there will be a "hold'' on future shuttle flights, this is going to be only a temporary phenomenon. "We're going to get together and fix this problem. We are going to launch satellites again'', Mr. Dittemore remarked.

In the aftermath of the 1986 disaster of the Challenger, shuttle launches were shut down for almost three years. What is being pointed out is that in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster, the then President, Ronald Reagan, had appointed a 13-member Commission headed by the former Secretary of State, William Rogers, to investigate the accident.

The Commission, after four months of study, came to the conclusion that an O-ring seal leaked in the right booster rocket and this had ruptured the shuttle tank, leading to the fiery end seconds after take-off.

In the context of the disintegration of the Columbia on Saturday, NASA is saying that all avenues will be pursued even as the first attention is on the heat shields protecting the shuttle. A piece of the insulating foam had hit the left wing of the shuttle, but at the time of the launch this was determined to be minor without any consequences upon re-entry of the spacecraft into the earth's atmosphere and safe landing.

Over the last two days, one of the themes constantly heard in the media and elsewhere is that Columbia was 22 years old and was just about to complete its 28th mission when it failed with disastrous consequences.

Columbia's first mission was on April 12, 1981; and apart from the routine inspections and maintenance schedules, the shuttle had undergone a major retrofitting in 1999-2000.

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