GO FEVER IS WELL ENTRENTCHED:(
- From: "Bob Haller" <hallerb@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 26 Mar 2006 06:24:48 -0800
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-insptect2606mar26,0,1371595.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
CAPE CANAVERAL -- Everything appeared normal June 5, 2002, as shuttle
Endeavour thundered to orbit from Kennedy Space Center through hazy
afternoon skies.
Unknown to the public, however, the Air Force's top two safety
officials at Cape Canaveral had tried to stop the countdown. Air Force
technicians could not verify that a critical backup system used to
destroy errant rockets was working properly.
In an apparently unprecedented move, the safety officers were
overruled after a phone conversation between Brig. Gen. Donald Pettit,
commander of the Air Force's 45th Space Wing, and KSC Director Roy
Bridges.
Endeavour launched minutes later in violation of flight rules designed
to protect the public.
Those and other findings are detailed in a 2005 internal briefing on
the incident written by investigators with NASA's Office of the
Inspector General. The draft, a copy of which was obtained by the
Orlando Sentinel, concluded the "Entire Florida Central Coast [was]
placed at UNKNOWN but INCREASED risk."
Despite those findings, NASA Inspector General Robert "Moose" Cobb
derailed the inquiry and declared the issue an Air Force matter last
year, according to investigators familiar with the case. Sources in
Cobb's office said they were forbidden from interviewing Bridges and
Pettit or requesting crucial information from the Air Force.
"It was obvious to me that he didn't want to make the agency [NASA]
look bad," said a former investigator in the office, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity. "He wouldn't do his job."
Cobb, a White House political appointee, is under investigation by an
administration integrity committee after being accused of repeatedly
quashing cases and retaliating against those who resisted.
The Sentinel interviewed five current or former investigators in NASA's
Inspector General's Office, as well as a safety official at Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, for this story. All requested anonymity
because of concerns they would face retribution for speaking publicly.
Cobb referred an e-mail request for an interview last week to Madeline
Chulumovich, his executive officer.
"Our audit office is working on a report on how this safety matter has
been resolved," Chulumovich said. "We've never stopped work on this
issue."
'Non-standard procedure'
All manned and unmanned rocket launches from KSC and Cape Canaveral are
supported by the Air Force's Eastern Range.
The range is a network of tracking and communications stations that
extend more than 5,000 miles from Cape Canaveral to Ascension Island in
the South Atlantic. The network is managed in the Range Operations
Control Center, or ROCC, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
One of the main reasons the range exists is to ensure public safety.
All rockets launched from Cape Canaveral are equipped with explosive
devices to destroy them if they veer off course. Both of the shuttle's
pencil-shaped booster rockets have such devices, which range-safety
officers can detonate by remote control. During the 1986 Challenger
disaster, a safety officer used the system to destroy the shuttle's
still-intact boosters as they arced uncontrollably away from the
massive explosion.
As with other critical functions, the so-called command-destruct system
has a backup communication link in case the primary link fails. Launch
rules mandate that both links must be working properly before a mission
lifts off.
On June 5, 2002, Endeavour was poised to begin a 14-day flight to the
international space station. Bad weather and a faulty valve in one of
Endeavour's rocket pods had delayed the launch for almost a week.
Weather conditions were expected to worsen the next day.
As countdown clocks ticked toward a 5:23 p.m. liftoff, the backup
command-destruct link went down about 2:30?|p.m. Components were
changed out, but still the link wouldn't work. After more
troubleshooting, the system faded in and out before being reported back
online about 3 p.m. However, the link went down again less than an hour
later.
According to the document drafted by investigators, Pettit and Bridges
discussed the problem at some point late in the countdown in a "totally
non-standard procedure" that occurred off of the regular communications
network used by range personnel.
next >>
Next
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: GO FEVER IS WELL ENTRENTCHED:(
- From: Bob Haller
- Re: GO FEVER IS WELL ENTRENTCHED:(
- Prev by Date: Re: National Aerospace Plane (X-30) announced 20 years ago
- Next by Date: Re: GO FEVER IS WELL ENTRENTCHED:(
- Previous by thread: Riding Rockets and Challenger (Mullane Book)
- Next by thread: Re: GO FEVER IS WELL ENTRENTCHED:(
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
