Mar 25 2003
From The Space Library
NASA announced that it had awarded US$39.9 million in additional work under the consolidated space operations contract (CSOC) with Lockheed Martin Space Operations Company, to fund NASA's JPL's maintenance and operation of the Deep Space Network in the United States, as well as to provide technical support to the Spanish and Australian Deep Space Network complexes. The additional work brought the total value of the CSOC to US$2.1 billion.(NASA, “NASA Awards $39.9 Million Contract Addition to Lockheed Martin,” news release c03-i, 25 March 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/mar/HP_news_c03i.html (25 August 2008).
In the CAIB's third public meeting, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Aloysius G. Casey, a retired three-star general and former Director of the Space Division of Air Force Systems Command, presented his opinions about the Columbia disaster, based on his decades of experience with missiles and rocket systems. Casey shared with the Board his knowledge of high-speed impacts, referring to the insulating foam that had fallen from the Shuttle's external tank 81 seconds after the 16 January launch. He also shared his knowledge of the level of testing necessary to determine whether a system is qualified to fly. Casey stated that NASA needed to “do a better job in quantifying the safety margins for all of the shuttle's various systems and be more sensitive to clues the hardware may be offering when things don't work as designed.” Board Chairperson Harold W. Gehman Jr., remarking that the “subject of 'successful flights don't re-establish margins' has come back again and again,” called Casey's insight very helpful. However, Roy D. Bridges Jr., Director of NASA's KSC, noted that he had never considered falling foam to be a safety issue and that it had never caused “any significant damage in the program to date.” Rather than a safety issue, Bridges had considered the foam a maintenance concern. Bridges commented that if he had been aware of the safety implications, he would have recommended a stop to flying. (Jim Banke, “NASA Missed Trouble Signs, Expert Tells Columbia Board,” Space.com, 25 March 2003, http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_caib_030325.html (accessed 29 August 2008).
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