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VOICE ONE:
This is Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with theVOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Seven astronauts and theSpace Shuttle Columbia were lost in an accident February first.Today we tell about the results of the investigation to discover thecause of that terrible accident.
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VOICE ONE:
Saturday morning, February first, two-thousand-three, was anexciting day at the Kennedy Space Center. American space agencyofficials, workers and family members of the seven astronauts on theSpace Shuttle Columbia were waiting to watch the space vehicle land.
The crew had performed a successful science flight in orbitaround the Earth. They worked on their science experimentstwenty-four hours a day during the sixteen-day flight.
At eight-fifteen in the morning, the Space Shuttle Columbia andthe crew of seven began entering Earth’s atmosphere. Ateight-fifty-nine, NASA lost all information and communication withColumbia.
The shuttle was flying six timesfaster than the speed of sound and sixty-two kilometers above theEarth. People in three states reported hearing an extremely loudnoise and seeing fire in the sky.
VOICE TWO:
A television cameraman in the southwestern state of Texas waswaiting for the Columbia to pass over his area. He pointed hiscamera in the area of the sky were the shuttle would be seen.
The pictures he recorded showed a bright light and a long trailof white smoke. Columbia was breaking apart.
Within minutes, NASA confirmed that something was terribly wrong.Within an hour, it announced the Columbia and its crew had beenlost. Thousands of pieces of the shuttle fell in a huge area of theUnited States, including parts of the states of California, Arizona,Texas and Louisiana.
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VOICE ONE:
On August twenty-sixth, the special Columbia AccidentInvestigation Board reported on the causes of the February firstaccident.
The committee’s thirteen members spent seven months gatheringinformation for the report. The committee had more thanone-hundred-twenty investigators to help them and more thanfour-hundred NASA engineers to explain technical information.
The committee’s report says themain cause of the accident was a piece of light-weight protectivematerial. This material came loose from the support structure thatconnects the shuttle to the large rocket it uses during launch.
The object hit the edge of Columbia’s left wing with a strongforce caused by the great speed of the shuttle. This created a smallhole in the wing’s special protective material. This material isdesigned to provide protection against the fierce heat caused by theshuttle’s speed when it reenters Earth’s atmosphere.
After its sixteen successful days in space, the shuttle beganreturning to Earth. When the shuttle began to fly into Earth’satmosphere, extremely hot air passed through the hole and into thewing. This heat damaged the metal and caused the wing to fail. Theshuttle went out of control and began to come apart. There was nopossible way for the seven members of the crew to survive.
VOICE TWO:
The Columbia accident investigating committee’s report says theprotective material hitting and damaging the wing was the main causeof the accident.
The committee said the accident should never have been permittedto happen. It said NASA officials must accept much of theresponsibility that led to the accident. The committee said themanagement system that controls NASA failed in several importantjobs. When these tasks were linked together they created problems orfailed to solve problems that led to the accident.
The committee members said it is important to remember that theinvestigation of the accident was an investigation of the NASAsystem, not an investigation of individual people.
VOICE ONE:
The group’s report says NASA’s management team learned soon afterColumbia’s launch that the protective material had hit the wing.NASA management members watched film of the incident several times.
This was not the first time this had happened. This same kind ofprotective material had come loose before and hit other shuttles.NASA’s management decided it had not created a problem in the pastand was not important this time. Officials decided that the materialhad not damaged the wing.
The investigating committee asked why nothing was done to correctand prevent this from happening again as it had in the past. Thereport said correcting the problem of loose material during launchwould have prevented the accident.
VOICE TWO:
After NASA learned that the material had hit the wing, severalNASA workers suggested the Department of Defense use a specialsatellite to take photographs of the wing. The photographs could bestudied to see if the wing had been damaged.
The NASA workers asked for this kind of inspection threedifferent times. The investigating committee said NASA’s managementeither took no action or blocked such an inspection.
The committee also said the NASA workers who made the requestsfor the photographs had not made them to the correct managementteams. Also, one of the requests did not suggest that this might bean important safety issue.
The committee report said the requests were among eight chancesthat could have resulted in pictures of Columbia in space. Thesepictures might have provided evidence that the wing had beenseverely damaged. This could have led to actions that might haveprevented the loss of the crew of Columbia and the shuttle.
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VOICE ONE:
The members of the Columbia Accident Investigating Board saidthey believe human space fight must continue. The group also saidthe people who fly into space do so knowing that danger is alwaysinvolved in such a flight.
The committee said safety must be the first concern of all NASAworkers. It said this is the only way to make acceptable the dangersof space travel. The committee’s report said NASA workers must feelthey can go to their team managers with any safety concerns.
The report also said the workers must know that managers willtake the needed action to improve safety, or take the needed stepsto investigate any possible safety problem.
VOICE TWO:
The investigating committee’s two-hundred-fifty page report endedwith twenty-nine suggestions to improve safety for those who flyinto space. One of these is the creation of an independent technicalengineering group.
This group would be responsible for investigating any safetythreat that might harm a shuttle craft. The group would alsoidentify and investigate anything that might create a danger to theshuttle system.
It would also have the power to stop any launch if a problembecame a safety issue or caused a threat to the crew or the shuttle.
VOICE ONE:
The committee also recommended a new training program for theSpace Flight Mission Management Team. The new training would expandvehicle safety emergencies. The management team would train to dealwith unexpected problems that might take place during futureflights.
The team would also train to work quickly in an emergency withsupport organizations within NASA and with the companies that buildthe equipment NASA uses on space craft.
The committee members also recommended developing a new method ofrecording space shuttle launches. They said at least three camerasshould be used to photograph the Space Shuttle launch. These cameraswould record the shuttle from launch to the separation of the solidrocket booster. Experts would then carefully study this recordedinformation after each launch to look for possible damage to theshuttle.
VOICE TWO:
The committee also said the future of safe human space flightdepends on good leadership. The group said the people of NASA mustchange. Safety must come first in all future launches.
On Monday, NASA released a plan that includes the steps theagency is taking to obey each suggestion of the Columbia AccidentInvestigation Board. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said thesesteps are already being carried out. He said NASA will work toreturn the three remaining space shuttles to flight as soon assafely possible.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by MarioRitter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America.