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Tuesday,
February 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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NASA ‘fired’ experts who gave
warning
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NASA retracts statement on crew remains What caused
disaster?
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1 killed, 2 hurt in Karachi
blast Abandoned missile mould found
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NASA ‘fired’ experts who gave warning New York, February 3 The incident was recalled after space shuttle Columbia broke up on Saturday, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Admiral Bernard Kauderer (retd) was so upset at the firings that he quit NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, a group of experts charged with monitoring safety at the space agency, the newspaper said. NASA conceded that the individuals were forced out, but told the newspaper it changed the charter of the group so that new members who were younger and more skilled could be added. “It had nothing to do with shooting the messenger,’’ a NASA spokeswoman told the newspaper. The panel’s most recent report, which came out last March and included analyses by the departed members, warned that work on long-term shuttle safety ‘’had deteriorated,’’ the article said. Tight budgets, the panel report said, were forcing an emphasis on short-term planning and adding to a backlog of planned improvements. “I have never been as worried for space shuttle safety as I am right now,’’ Dr Richard D. Blomberg, the panel’s chairman, told Congress in April. “All of my instincts suggest that the current approach is planting the seeds for future danger,” the newspaper reported. Members of Congress who heard the testimony from the panel last spring told the newspaper that they would re-examine whether budget constraints had undermined safety, but several said they doubted it. President George W. Bush will propose a nearly $ 470-million boost in NASA’s budget for the 2004 fiscal, an administration official said yesterday, promising investigators would look into whether past cutbacks played any part in the Columbia disaster. Nacogdoches (Texas): Hundreds of investigators with expertise in airline accidents, engineering and forensics converged on Texas and Louisiana to join in the painstaking job of retrieving pieces of Columbia from a swath of forested country turned disaster area. As inundated local authorities scrambled to track and guard a sprawling debris field, NASA established command posts in Lufkin, Texas, and at Barksdale Air Force base in Louisiana to oversee recovery and examination of the wreckage. Reuters, AP |
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NASA retracts statement on crew remains Houston, February 3 “Unfortunately, Mr Bob Cabana was misinformed about it beforehand,” Johnson Space Center spokeswoman Kylie Moritz told AFP in a telephone interview late last night. “We have not confirmed that remains of all seven crew members have been found,” she said. Mr Cabana, who heads flight crew operations at the centre, told reporters earlier in the day that some remains of the astronauts who lost their lives in the Columbia disaster had already been located. Ms Moritz said NASA could confirm that search groups had found “some remains” but it was unable to say at this point as to how many persons they belonged. WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush will attend a NASA memorial service for the Columbia astronauts in Houston on Tuesday, a White House spokesman has said. Mr Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will travel to Johnson Space Center for the service, which is to begin at 11.15 p.m. IST, Ari Fleischer said on Sunday. “The president has also directed NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe to go to Capitol Hill ... to fully inform and share all information with members of Congress, the 16 chairmen and ranking members of the science, commerce and appropriations committees,” Fleischer said.
AFP |
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What caused
disaster?
Houston (Texas), February 3 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has not given a cause but has said that in the minutes before the shuttle broke up sensors showed that temperatures in the left wing signalled an overheating. The theories: Heat Shield Problems There are 24,000 tiles on the bottom of the shuttle which protect the craft against temperatures of up to 1,650°C that hit the shuttle as it re-enters earth’s atmosphere. The rise in temperature shown by the sensors indicate one of the tiles could have been lost. The shuttle could have broken apart in the furnace caused by the loss of heat protection. Video images show that an object hit the left wing just after Columbia took off on January 16. This could have been part of the polystyrene protection around the central fuel tank which could have knocked off one of the heat tiles.
Loss of Control The shuttle could have lost control of one of the 11 wing flaps, possibly because of the object seen on January 16 or a short circuit in the hydraulic command system. The flaps enable the shuttle to carry out a series of wide turns as it comes through the atmosphere so that it can slow down. The shuttle has to come through the atmosphere at an angle of attack of 40 degrees. Anything bigger and the craft could flip over backward from the atmospheric thrust. Anything less would risk entering the atmosphere too fast, possibly melting its aluminum shell.
Metal Fatigue The stress placed on the aluminium and graphite shell could have broken up the shuttle. Such metal fatigue is often seen in elderly civil airliners. NASA brought all four shuttles out of service for four months last year after micro-cracks were seen in engine fuel pipes.
Short Circuit A short circuit caused by a frayed cable could have caused a fire on the shuttle.
Meteorite Hitting a meteorite is the least probable of the cause of Saturday’s disaster, but not to be dismissed.
AFP |
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1 killed, 2 hurt in Karachi blast Karachi, February 3 The explosion caused extensive damage to one side of the modern, glass structure of the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) headquarters and also blew out windows of nearby buildings. No organisation has yet claimed responsibility for the attack but the police said the explosion could be a message to PSO, which supplies oil to the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. “It is an act of terrorism,” Mr Syed Kamal Shah, chief of Sindh provincial police, told reporters at the site of the blast in Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial hub. The explosives were attached to a motor cycle, Mr Shah said. The police found a national identity card on the body giving their age as 22 and bearing an address in the North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.
Reuters |
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Abandoned missile mould found Baghdad, February 3 The Iraqis provided the inspectors with the “necessary technical explications on the presence of this mould,” INA said. “The affair was closed and it was agreed to present (the inspectors) with further explanations at a later date.” The inspectors also found at the same site a “modified warhead for a Luna-type missile with a range of 70 km,” INA said.
AFP |
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Baghdad, February 3
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