Ready to risk more lives

WASHINGTON -- If he had known Columbia was in trouble, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said Wednesday he would have done everything possible to try and save the seven astronauts, even if it meant sending up a rescue space shuttle and risking another crew.

"There is no way we would have abandoned them," O'Keefe said in an interview.

O'Keefe said that during the shuttle's January mission, an engineering evaluation did not conclude that Columbia was at risk of destruction from a damaged wing. As a consequence, he said, nothing was done to try to mitigate the danger the spacecraft faced in returning to Earth.

Some engineers have suggested that even if the risk had been known, there was nothing that could have been done.

The administrator rejected that notion.

"Even if the possibility would have been a slim percentage, we would have tried anything possible in order to make this (rescue) happen, even to include the prospect of sending another orbiter," said O'Keefe. "Whether we would have done that or not was very scenario-dependent. I can't say whether we would or wouldn't have.

"But I don't think we would have left anything unturned," he said.

Space shuttle Atlantis in January was being prepared for a March 1 launch and experts said that schedule could have been accelerated if engineers had known Columbia was in trouble.

In the interview, O'Keefe cited the Apollo 13 rescue, in which Mission Control created dramatic engineering techniques to get three astronauts back safely to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded on the way to the moon in 1970.

"None of that was something anybody trained for, and yet they ... employed all the assets and capabilities that could be brought to bear," he said. He asserted that a similar effort would have been mounted for Columbia if engineers had known the spacecraft was at risk of destruction.

Retired Adm. Harold Gehman, chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said last week that the board asked NASA to analyze what could have been done to improve the chances of the astronauts surviving. A report is expected to be presented to the board this week.

Columbia on Feb. 1 broke up over Texas during its fiery re-entry toward a landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All seven astronauts were killed. Debris from the spacecraft was scattered over thousands of square miles of East Texas and Louisiana. The three remaining space shuttles have been grounded while an investigation board searches for the causes.

Investigation board members said last week that they believe there was a break in the heat shield on the left wing of Columbia. The board said it believes the extreme heat of re-entry penetrated the wing through that break and melted the metal supports inside the wing. It's thought a heat shield panel or seal may have been broken by foam insulation peeling off the shuttle's external fuel tank during launch. The board also has expressed concern that NASA has no way of determining the condition of supports inside the wings of the three remaining space orbiters.

O'Keefe said engineers are preparing to take off the heat shield panels on the wings of Atlantis. The parts will be inspected for evidence that they have been weakened or damaged by age or use. He said NASA also is considering a redesign of the critical heat shield on the wing, but this effort is still in a very early stage.

The administrator acknowledged that some members of Congress and some spacecraft experts have said that the space shuttle is too risky and too old to ever again be flown with people on board, but he said those opinions are in the minority. The American people, said O'Keefe, have been overwhelming in their support for returning the shuttle to space despite the risks.

By Paul Recer ~ The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- If he had known Columbia was in trouble, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said Wednesday he would have done everything possible to try and save the seven astronauts, even if it meant sending up a rescue space shuttle and risking another crew.

"There is no way we would have abandoned them," O'Keefe said in an interview.

O'Keefe said that during the shuttle's January mission, an engineering evaluation did not conclude that Columbia was at risk of destruction from a damaged wing. As a consequence, he said, nothing was done to try to mitigate the danger the spacecraft faced in returning to Earth.

Some engineers have suggested that even if the risk had been known, there was nothing that could have been done.

The administrator rejected that notion.

"Even if the possibility would have been a slim percentage, we would have tried anything possible in order to make this (rescue) happen, even to include the prospect of sending another orbiter," said O'Keefe. "Whether we would have done that or not was very scenario-dependent. I can't say whether we would or wouldn't have.

"But I don't think we would have left anything unturned," he said.

Space shuttle Atlantis in January was being prepared for a March 1 launch and experts said that schedule could have been accelerated if engineers had known Columbia was in trouble.

In the interview, O'Keefe cited the Apollo 13 rescue, in which Mission Control created dramatic engineering techniques to get three astronauts back safely to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded on the way to the moon in 1970.

"None of that was something anybody trained for, and yet they ... employed all the assets and capabilities that could be brought to bear," he said. He asserted that a similar effort would have been mounted for Columbia if engineers had known the spacecraft was at risk of destruction.

Retired Adm. Harold Gehman, chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said last week that the board asked NASA to analyze what could have been done to improve the chances of the astronauts surviving. A report is expected to be presented to the board this week.

Columbia on Feb. 1 broke up over Texas during its fiery re-entry toward a landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All seven astronauts were killed. Debris from the spacecraft was scattered over thousands of square miles of East Texas and Louisiana. The three remaining space shuttles have been grounded while an investigation board searches for the causes.

Investigation board members said last week that they believe there was a break in the heat shield on the left wing of Columbia. The board said it believes the extreme heat of re-entry penetrated the wing through that break and melted the metal supports inside the wing. It's thought a heat shield panel or seal may have been broken by foam insulation peeling off the shuttle's external fuel tank during launch. The board also has expressed concern that NASA has no way of determining the condition of supports inside the wings of the three remaining space orbiters.

O'Keefe said engineers are preparing to take off the heat shield panels on the wings of Atlantis. The parts will be inspected for evidence that they have been weakened or damaged by age or use. He said NASA also is considering a redesign of the critical heat shield on the wing, but this effort is still in a very early stage.

The administrator acknowledged that some members of Congress and some spacecraft experts have said that the space shuttle is too risky and too old to ever again be flown with people on board, but he said those opinions are in the minority. The American people, said O'Keefe, have been overwhelming in their support for returning the shuttle to space despite the risks.