Not A Smart Agency

Tucson, AZ

Nasa ready to bend shuttle safety rules

Nasa will make a fresh attempt to launch the space shuttle Discovery this afternoon, admitting yesterday that it was prepared to bend the agency's own safety rules over a technical glitch that caused the last mission to be abandoned earlier this month.

Nasa scientists said they had not resolved the fault with a fuel gauge that halted the July 13 countdown with little more than two hours to go, with Discovery's seven astronauts strapped into their seats on the flight deck.

But Nasa's administrator, Mike Griffin, insisted the malfunction "is not a safety of flight issue", and shuttle managers remain confident that America's first manned space flight since the February 2003 Columbia disaster can go ahead as planned.

Exactly why was it previously considered a safety of flight issue and now magically is not?

"We have literally run every check that we can think of, that people can suggest to us, to try to find this problem," Mr Hale said.

"We have wiggled a lot of wiring and it is possible we have caused the problem, whatever it was, to go away.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure glad I'm not a NASA astronaut today. This sounds like a Red Green fix-it special.


NASA to Launch Despite Fuel Gauge Problem

A NASA launch rule that was put place after the 1986 Challenger disaster requires that all four sensors be working properly, though only two are actually needed.

Randy Avera, a former NASA engineer who helped develop the shuttle's inspection program, said he is troubled by the agency's willingness to bend the rule. He said it reminds him of the thinking that led to the problems that brought down Challenger in 1986 and killed all seven astronauts aboard.

"I'm skeptical," he said. "What we need to hear from NASA is the ... basis from which they make this decision."

Yes, that would be nice. Something better than this:

Workers last week repaired faulty electrical grounding inside Discovery and rewired some of the sensors in hopes that would solve the problem that cropped up during the previous launch attempt. The same type of problem occurred back in April during a fueling test and was written off then as an "unexplained anomaly."

NASA had 14 teams around the country studying the problem. They have eliminated possible explanations one by one but have been unable to arrive at a definitive answer.

But Nickolenko said that after extensive troubleshooting, "I think we're smarter in understanding exactly what we have."

"The teams are ready. We're certainly very eager," he said. "We're looking forward to launch."

Let me get this straight. They haven't root caused the problem nor corrected it, he thinks they are smarter in understanding what they have? What does that even mean? This person is just running off at the mouth.

Clearly there have been no cultural changes at NASA just as there weren't after the Challenger incident (I had a professor who used to say, "There are no accidents- only incidents."). It's only a matter of time before they kill another half-dozen or so astronauts.


Update:
After that, with their neat new toys, they saw debris flying off and around the shuttle which is a problem since when crap hits the shuttle bad things happen (reference the last Columbia flight):
NASA Scrutinizes Impact of Shuttle Debris

Now, just a day after they launched under extremely sketchy circumstances, they are now grounding future flights:
NASA grounds future flights

Quick- fly now before we have to ground it! seems to be the attitude that drove the latest launch forward in spite of the known fuel sensor safety issue. It is absolutely shameful how very little NASA values the lives of its astronauts.