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News: Shuttle's Age Seattle Times - Los Angeles Times February 03, 2003 Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134627300_nasa03.html Monday, February 03, 2003, 12:00 a.m. Pacific Shuttles' age had provoked safety fears By Usha Lee McFarling Los Angeles Times Leaks in fuel lines. Cracked door hinges. Pitted and stained exteriors. Even holes drilled by woodpeckers. As America's space-shuttle fleet has aged, its obvious scars and glitches have accumulated. So have deep fears about its safety. The fleet — 22 years old — has now been flying for twice as long as its builders first envisioned. Some parts were made so long ago that they are no longer available. Shuttle engineers have had to turn to Internet auction site eBay for desperately needed hardware and electronics. Columbia, the oldest and heaviest of the shuttle orbiters, was nearly mothballed in the late 1990s as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration tried to limit the swelling cost of the shuttle-program budget. Even as the fleet ages, NASA has had to grapple with a series of budget cuts and layoffs that have severely compromised the space agency's ability to maintain the fleet safely, say experts who in recent years have expressed increasingly urgent concern about astronaut safety. The shuttle maintenance staff shrank from 3,000 to 1,800 workers between 1995 and 1999, according to a Rand Corp. analysis. "In all of the years of my involvement, I have never been as concerned for space-shuttle safety as I am right now," Richard Blomberg, a 15-year veteran of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said last spring, when he released the most recent safety report card to lawmakers in Washington. NASA's current approach, he said at the time, was "planting the seeds for future danger." A series of reports from the General Accounting Office, National Academy of Sciences and NASA's own advisory boards have all called for upgrades to the shuttle to improve its safety. In 1996, NASA's associate administrator for the space-shuttle program resigned abruptly, saying the shuttle faced unacceptable risks. "NASA was told in no uncertain terms ... that it must not rely on the shuttle, that the shuttle was a complicated and fragile technology. NASA simply did not take that seriously," said Alex Roland, a former space-agency historian now at Duke University. NASA officials have long responded by saying that safety is a top priority and that the shuttles are not too old to fly. Shuttle-program manager Ron Dittemore said Saturday that he did not think age was a factor in the shuttle loss. "Our vehicles are in pristine shape," he said. "A lot of tender loving care goes into the care of our vehicles so they look brand new." The shuttles were built to fly 100 times each. Columbia was on its 28th voyage. But it is unknown what the shelf life of a shuttle is or how gracefully the shuttles age as they endure violent launches and re-entries at speeds of several times the speed of sound. "You can only improve on a 40-year-old design so much," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who serves as a member of a space and aeronautics subcommittee. The Apollo-era technology has become so dated and obsolete that engineers repairing the shuttle have had to scavenge for parts and computer chips now considered primitive. Even the infrastructure used to work on the shuttle is crumbling. Workers at the Vehicle Assembly Building where the shuttle is serviced at Kennedy Space Center have strung a net below the ceiling to catch chunks of concrete plummeting from the roof. Mike McCulley, the chief operating officer of United Space Alliance, the Lockheed Martin-Boeing partnership that is the prime contractor to NASA for day-to-day shuttle operations, publicly bemoaned his ability to operate under continued NASA budget cuts at the April 2002 public hearing on the matter. "The ice is getting thinner under our feet as we move out toward the middle of the lake," he said. Columbia entered the history books as the first shuttle to enter orbit, in 1981. As the oldest vehicle, it became a prime candidate for mothballing, in part because it was the only orbiter incapable of docking at the International Space Station. NASA officials also looked into selling Columbia to a commercial venture but found little interest. They considered retrofitting it and parking it permanently at the space station as an emergency escape vehicle. In the end, NASA managers decided to give Columbia a second chance at life with a complete overhaul. The vehicle was almost wholly remade during an 18-month, million overhaul completed in 2001 at Boeing's facility in Palmdale, Calif. During the overhaul, the shuttle was fitted with a new high-tech glass cockpit. New thermal shielding, one of the items that may have had a role in the disaster Saturday, was put around its wings. Obsolete electronics and some faulty wiring were replaced. As it flew back to Cape Canaveral piggybacked on a 747, engineers were calling Columbia both the fleet's "oldest and newest shuttle." After the accident Saturday morning, maintenance workers at the Palmdale plant were going over their work in their heads, wondering if they had perhaps made some kind of mistake. "The first thing I thought was, 'God, have I done something wrong?' " said one engineer who had been moved to tears by news of the shuttle loss but did not give his name because plant officials had told employees not to talk to the media. "I was surprised the effect it had on me." But they were reassured by the fact that Columbia had made a successful journey last March when it lifted off to upgrade the Hubble telescope and then returned safely. Shrinking budgets, experts said, have undercut the agency's ability to maintain its shuttle fleet and, more importantly, design and build a new generation of safer and cheaper reusable aircraft that should have replaced the shuttle years ago, experts said. The two most prominent were the experimental, wedged-shaped X-33 and X-34 spaceships, both abandoned for money and engineering issues. With no replacement on the horizon, NASA extended the life span of the shuttle, saying an intensive upgrade program would permit "safe and efficient flight to 2012 and beyond." More recent estimates have suggested the shuttle fleet could be in use until 2020. And some have said it could fly safely for decades. "Age doesn't always imply a lack of performance," said Jerry Blackburn, a retired Rockwell employee who tested materials used on the orbiter. "You're talking about a vehicle that was designed for 100 successful missions. There was never really a finite time set on those." Safety re-emerged most recently when nearly invisible cracks were discovered in the pipes that carry supercold hydrogen fuel to the shuttle's main engines. The cracks were discovered in all the vehicles, both old and new. While not considered a clear indicator of aging, they highlighted the many potential problems in the massively complex systems. The entire fleet was grounded last summer while the pipes were inspected and repaired. Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company |
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