[新闻] 美国宇航局计划最早明年3月恢复航天飞机的发射。（转自美国福克斯新闻网）

NASA plan targets March for shuttle return
Monday, September 8, 2003 Posted: 7:04 AM EDT (1104 GMT)
 
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA has developed a "return to flight" plan for future shuttle missions -- one that aims for a resumption of flights as early as next March.

The 78-page report offers a look at the steps the space agency has been taking, or is considering, in order to comply with recommendations by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

Columbia's seven astronauts were killed February 1 when the shuttle broke apart as it re-entered the atmosphere from space.

The NASA plan, being released officially Monday, lists a return to a flight schedule with a March 11 "launch date," but agency spokesman Allard Beutel said the date is simply a planning date and not a foregone conclusion.

Beutel said officials are looking at a March-to-April launch window, but that could easily slip if the agency isn't able to meet all of its targeted safety steps.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday, makes no mention of cost estimates for the return to flight.

For nine of the 15 return-to-flight requirements outlined by the investigative board, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration makes only pledges or discusses plans to comply.

For these items, the plan talks of "potential solutions," "assessing options" or says "procedures are under evaluation," indicating that final plans are still evolving.

An example is the board's requirement that NASA find a way to "harden" the thermal protection system, making it more resistant to impact from debris. In its response, NASA says it has selected "eight near-term options" for further study and made no final decision.

The agency had specific plans to fix a basic hardware element linked to the loss of Columbia.

The spacecraft was fatally damaged during launch when a chunk of foam insulation that covered a strut attach point on the external tank peeled off and shattered a thermal protection panel in the left wing.

The insulation was required to prevent the formation of ice when the tank is filled with supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

   
To avoid this problem, NASA said heaters will be incorporated at the attach point to eliminate the need for foam insulation.

But other efforts to lessen foam insulation peeling from other parts of the external tank remain under study, the agency said.

The investigative board also said NASA must develop a way for spacewalking astronauts in orbit to view the leading edge of the shuttle wings and the craft's underside.

And it called on the agency to develop ways of repairing, in orbit, thermal protection tiles or panels broken during launch.

NASA said only that efforts are "under development."

Among other steps outlined in the agency's plan:

?Officials will add cameras in various locations on the shuttle to get a better idea of any possible damage. For the next launch, a camera is being added to the external fuel tank to view the so-called bipod area, where the foam came off during Columbia's launch.

?NASA has struck an agreement with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and other facilities to provide spy satellite camera images of the orbiter during flight.

Members of an independent advisory group will assess and evaluate NASA's progress on implementing the Columbia accident board's recommendations. The task force will be led by veteran astronauts Thomas Stafford and Richard Covey.



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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

'Smarter, Stronger, Safer' NASA Targets March-April Launch
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer,
Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 03:15 pm ETS
08 September 2003




This is an update to a story first posted at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT).

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- "Smarter, stronger, safer" is NASA's new mantra, according to an introductory statement in the space agency's Return to Flight Implementation Plan released Monday.

The 156-page plan is NASA's formal, public response to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) final report released Aug. 26.

"Today as we publicly rollout out our Return to Flight Implementation Plan, we are taking that first step on what undoubtedly will be a tough, uphill climb to safely returning the space shuttle to flight status," said Bill Readdy, NASA's spaceflight chief in Washington.

Point-by-point, the NASA plan addresses each of the CAIB's 29 findings and recommendations that will allow the space agency to resume flying space shuttles. Fixes both technical and cultural are described in detail.

The plan leaves open the issue of how much extra money the changes to NASA and shuttle hardware will cost.

"(The plan did not) attempt to capture implementation costs, per se. It was way too preliminary in order to incorporate that, but at some future date it shall," Readdy said.
   
The plan's timeline continues to suggest March 11, 2004 as a target launch date for the next shuttle mission. However, many details have yet to be finalized before an actual date is selected, officials said.

"When all that comes together in the next few weeks we will have a much better feel for when the launch date will be," said shuttle program manager Bill Parsons.

Based on new guidelines for launching during the day, and considering when it's possible to launch to the International Space Station, Readdy said that available launch periods run roughly from March 11 to April 6, May 19 to June 28, July 18 to Aug. 26 and so on in that same general pattern.

On the technical side the plan is very specific in offering steps to reduce the risk of flying the shuttle, most of which have been discussed in public before.

For example, the bipod foam ramp that was the source of the insulation debris that fell from Columbia's external tank and struck the orbiter's left wing will be replace by a heater.

Another change detailed in the plan is the desire to launch future shuttle missions during the day so that tracking cameras can better document any shedding foam from the tank. Once the foam problem is solved, NASA suggests that night launches might resume.

And like the CAIB report, NASA's response does not directly address whether changes to the shuttle will be made to accommodate some kind of more robust crew escape system, such as an ejectable pod.

But some of the more interesting changes in work have to do with NASA's plans to change its culture. Among them:

Encouraging people to express dissenting views on technical matters, even if they do not have hard supporting evidence to back them up. In the past, engineers with a strong "gut" feeling something was wrong were ignored or silenced by superiors because there was no data to support the assertion.

Require the Mission Management Team (MMT) to meet daily during missions as its own charter requires -- something they had not been doing -- and exercise the MMT during mission training simulations that will include crisis situations. In the past the MMT was not part of Mission Control training before a flight.

Include independent and outside consultants to help train NASA management in decision making skills. Among the classes NASA managers might have to take: a US Navy course on the Challenger launch decision. Experts in these areas have been ignored by NASA managers in the past, according to the CAIB.

Officials describe the NASA plan as a "living document" that may be refined as time goes on depending on input received from future volumes of the CAIB report, Congressional oversight committees or the White House.

NASA plans to return to Capital Hill with an updated and revised plan in about a month.

In the meantime, congressional hearings continue this week with the House Science Committee calling CAIB chairman, retired U.S. Navy Adm. Harold Gehman, to return and answer more questions about NASA and its return to flight plans.

Gehman is scheduled to appear before the committee along with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. It will be O'Keefe's first appearance before the House Science Committee since the CAIB released its final report. By the end of September, the House Science Committee expects to fall into a rhythm of weekly NASA hearings, each one focusing on a different aspect of the report.

Also watching NASA through this process will be the Stafford Covey Task Group, an independent team of experts led by Project Gemini and Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford and veteran shuttle commander Dick Covey. The next shuttle will not launch without their blessing that NASA has met all of the CAIB's return to flight requirements.

The task group is expected to meet in Houston this week and is scheduled to host a news briefing on Thursday.

"All great journeys begin with a single step. With this initial implementation plan, we are beginning a new phase in our return to flight effort," the report said.

Space News writer Brian Berger contributed to this story from Washington.