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American Morning
Talk with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe
Aired February 03, 2003 - 07:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The Columbia tragedy is raising some very pointed questions about the safety of an aging shuttle fleet. The mission that ended in tragedy on Saturday was Columbia's 28th flight. It was built to do 100 flights. It was the oldest and heaviest of the orbiters.
Joining us now from NASA headquarters in Washington, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
Good of you to join us this morning, sir.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Thank you.
ZAHN: Our condolences to you and the NASA family.
O'KEEFE: Thank you, Paula.
I appreciate it very much.
ZAHN: We understand you're going to be meeting with the president a little bit later today. It has been published in a number of accounts that in the president's budget he will ask for an increase of over a half billion dollars for the current budget over the last budget.
What else will you be asking the president for?
O'KEEFE: Well, I'm going to give him a briefing running down the information of exactly how the evidence collection process has worked, exactly how we are going about the important due diligence of securing that information, analyzing the data and coming to a conclusion about what could have caused this horrific accident.
We have an independent investigation board that is in place now on the ground in Shreveport, Louisiana. Admiral Hal Gehman is leading that investigative effort and he's examining all the information or is having the investigative team brief him on all the information that we've been gathering so far.
So I want to bring the president up to speed to exactly where we are in that process of assuring that we come to some closure of where the facts will lead us in terms of what caused this horrific accident.
ZAHN: How concerned were you about some of the safety issues that an expert NASA panel raised months before Columbia ever lifted off? O'KEEFE: Well, indeed, we're worried about safety every single day in this agency. There's not a single flight that takes off without going through a very, very rigid, extremely methodical safety regime of what's involved. And the advisory panel that is advising us here at NASA, that has come up with a series of findings. We have implement those. We're constantly looking to improve that process. It is something we take extremely diligent. No flight takes off unless there is a certification of every single issue that could possibly compromise safety of flight.
And so we guarantee that each and every time and that this flight was no different. There was no anomalies, no objections attracted and, as a result, all factors were run to ground and examined before we ever launched. And that's part of the legacy, I think, of, the, not only the Challenger tragedy, but also, I think, the daily diligence we always put to safety and our safety panel always helps us improve that process.
ZAHN: Well, then, let me ask you about a report in the "New York Times" this morning and a front page story, the suggestion that when your own expert NASA panel last year warned that safety problems loomed for the shuttle program if the budget was not increased, that NASA removed five of the panel's nine members and two of its consultants. And according to the "New York Times," some of them are now saying the agency was trying to suppress their criticisms.
O'KEEFE: I'm surprised, because they are, their, all the tenures of each of the individuals who were on the safety panel, they have served out their full term, and as a consequence by the terms of the way they organize themselves -- this is not a case where we specifically intrude in that case -- the tenure of each of the individuals, in order to maintain an, you know, a current perspective, each of the individuals serve a specific tenure. They're members first then they later become chairs on the panel, potentially, and then move on from there.
So there's no abnormality that I'm aware of, but I'll certainly look into it and see if we can satisfy ourselves that there is no other intrusion involved. I'm not aware of any at all.
ZAHN: Yes, because there is, according to this article, appearance of a disconnect there. You have a man named Dr. Richard Blumberg who said quote -- this was back in last March when the report came out -- "I have never been as worried for space shuttle safety as I am right now." And he went on to say, "All of my instincts suggest that the current approach is planting the seeds for future danger." They said the long-term shuttle safety had seriously deteriorated.
O'KEEFE: I do believe...
ZAHN: You were aware of what they were saying?
O'KEEFE: Right. That part of it I think, to be sure, we've talked to the safety panel and when, at the time that Blumberg was the chairman, to be sure, the issue he was raising was future process implications. He was very clear to say in that same report that this flight, the next flight and the ones in the very near future were not to be or likely to be affected by any of this. But he was concerned about the future process at that time of exactly what would be the upgrades as well as satisfy modifications necessary.
We took those ideas aboard, made modifications to the program. As a matter of fact, the president submitted an amendment to the Congress to his fiscal year '03 budget in November of last year that extended the service life of the shuttle, provided the funding necessary in order for us to go down that road and specifically addressed the concerns that the safety panel raised.
So they're a valuable source of advice and recommendations to us and we've acted upon those. And it all pertained to the future conditions we were there. We're very cognizant of that and very appreciative of all the effort they've made over time to give us some important guidance.
ZAHN: And we are very appreciative of you for spending with little time with us here this morning.
Best of luck to you and the NASA family and the rest of the folks who are trying to figure out what happened on Saturday.
Thanks again for your time this morning.
O'KEEFE: Thank you, Paula.
I appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 3, 2003 - 07:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The Columbia tragedy is raising some very pointed questions about the safety of an aging shuttle fleet. The mission that ended in tragedy on Saturday was Columbia's 28th flight. It was built to do 100 flights. It was the oldest and heaviest of the orbiters.
Joining us now from NASA headquarters in Washington, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
Good of you to join us this morning, sir.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Thank you.
ZAHN: Our condolences to you and the NASA family.
O'KEEFE: Thank you, Paula.
I appreciate it very much.
ZAHN: We understand you're going to be meeting with the president a little bit later today. It has been published in a number of accounts that in the president's budget he will ask for an increase of over a half billion dollars for the current budget over the last budget.
What else will you be asking the president for?
O'KEEFE: Well, I'm going to give him a briefing running down the information of exactly how the evidence collection process has worked, exactly how we are going about the important due diligence of securing that information, analyzing the data and coming to a conclusion about what could have caused this horrific accident.
We have an independent investigation board that is in place now on the ground in Shreveport, Louisiana. Admiral Hal Gehman is leading that investigative effort and he's examining all the information or is having the investigative team brief him on all the information that we've been gathering so far.
So I want to bring the president up to speed to exactly where we are in that process of assuring that we come to some closure of where the facts will lead us in terms of what caused this horrific accident.
ZAHN: How concerned were you about some of the safety issues that an expert NASA panel raised months before Columbia ever lifted off? O'KEEFE: Well, indeed, we're worried about safety every single day in this agency. There's not a single flight that takes off without going through a very, very rigid, extremely methodical safety regime of what's involved. And the advisory panel that is advising us here at NASA, that has come up with a series of findings. We have implement those. We're constantly looking to improve that process. It is something we take extremely diligent. No flight takes off unless there is a certification of every single issue that could possibly compromise safety of flight.
And so we guarantee that each and every time and that this flight was no different. There was no anomalies, no objections attracted and, as a result, all factors were run to ground and examined before we ever launched. And that's part of the legacy, I think, of, the, not only the Challenger tragedy, but also, I think, the daily diligence we always put to safety and our safety panel always helps us improve that process.
ZAHN: Well, then, let me ask you about a report in the "New York Times" this morning and a front page story, the suggestion that when your own expert NASA panel last year warned that safety problems loomed for the shuttle program if the budget was not increased, that NASA removed five of the panel's nine members and two of its consultants. And according to the "New York Times," some of them are now saying the agency was trying to suppress their criticisms.
O'KEEFE: I'm surprised, because they are, their, all the tenures of each of the individuals who were on the safety panel, they have served out their full term, and as a consequence by the terms of the way they organize themselves -- this is not a case where we specifically intrude in that case -- the tenure of each of the individuals, in order to maintain an, you know, a current perspective, each of the individuals serve a specific tenure. They're members first then they later become chairs on the panel, potentially, and then move on from there.
So there's no abnormality that I'm aware of, but I'll certainly look into it and see if we can satisfy ourselves that there is no other intrusion involved. I'm not aware of any at all.
ZAHN: Yes, because there is, according to this article, appearance of a disconnect there. You have a man named Dr. Richard Blumberg who said quote -- this was back in last March when the report came out -- "I have never been as worried for space shuttle safety as I am right now." And he went on to say, "All of my instincts suggest that the current approach is planting the seeds for future danger." They said the long-term shuttle safety had seriously deteriorated.
O'KEEFE: I do believe...
ZAHN: You were aware of what they were saying?
O'KEEFE: Right. That part of it I think, to be sure, we've talked to the safety panel and when, at the time that Blumberg was the chairman, to be sure, the issue he was raising was future process implications. He was very clear to say in that same report that this flight, the next flight and the ones in the very near future were not to be or likely to be affected by any of this. But he was concerned about the future process at that time of exactly what would be the upgrades as well as satisfy modifications necessary.
We took those ideas aboard, made modifications to the program. As a matter of fact, the president submitted an amendment to the Congress to his fiscal year '03 budget in November of last year that extended the service life of the shuttle, provided the funding necessary in order for us to go down that road and specifically addressed the concerns that the safety panel raised.
So they're a valuable source of advice and recommendations to us and we've acted upon those. And it all pertained to the future conditions we were there. We're very cognizant of that and very appreciative of all the effort they've made over time to give us some important guidance.
ZAHN: And we are very appreciative of you for spending with little time with us here this morning.
Best of luck to you and the NASA family and the rest of the folks who are trying to figure out what happened on Saturday.
Thanks again for your time this morning.
O'KEEFE: Thank you, Paula.
I appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
