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Could Faulty "Bolt Catchers" Cause Future NASA Accidents?

Aired June 12, 2003 - 15:35   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, investigators say they have found a new threat to the remaining three space shuttles. It's called a bolt catcher, and investigators believe it is flawed. But they do not think it was involved in the Shuttle Columbia disaster.
CNN's Kathleen Koch is covering the Columbia hearing and joins us now to sort it all out. Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, basically what this is, is the solid rocket boosters that are on either side of the space shuttle when it on takes off, they're fastened to the external tank behind it by bolts, two bolts on the top, two bolts on the bottom. And at the time that they're done with the rocket boosters, these bolts -- there's a charge and they separate. But they are supposed to be caught inside something called a bolt catcher so they don't then fall back and strike the space shuttle.

Well, what the Columbia accident investigation board revealed today is that they have some radar data that shows something floating away from the space shuttle at about the time that the bolts would have been blowing. And they think it could be potentially a bolt catcher.

And so, basically, what they're going to be doing is they're going to be testing this more. And they say they don't think it had anything, as you said, to do with anything striking the Columbia. But they're looking at it for future missions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. HAL GEHMAN, BOARD CHAIRMAN: What we have here is a possibility that we have found another source of debris. We don't have any evidence that it was a source of debris, except that the radar tracking of the Columbia indicated at the time of SRB separation, 126 seconds, at a time when there's not supposed to be any debris, it noted a piece of debris.

MAJ. GEN. JOHN BERRY, BOARD MEMBER: Long story short is this thing can cause some serious impact damage if, in fact, that -- but there's no indication that it hit the orbiter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, again, they are still primarily focusing on, when it comes to the potential cause of the Columbia accident, the foam, the roughly less than two-pound piece of foam that came off the orbiter 81 seconds in. They're looking at doing more testing on that foam.

Friday they did some tests where they fired with a sort of a rocket. They fired a chunk of the foam at a leading edge of a space shuttle wing, a mockup edge. And they actually announced today that they found it did even more damage than they thought that it did on Friday.

So they're going to do more tests, try to get to the bottom of that. And also this bolt and the bolt catcher, which weighs some 40 pounds, at least the bolt itself. So much more potentially damaging than the foam -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Kathleen Koch giving us a live update now on the Shuttle Columbia. Thanks so much, Kathleen.

KOCH: You bet.

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 June 12, 2003 - 15:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, investigators say they have found a new threat to the remaining three space shuttles. It's called a bolt catcher, and investigators believe it is flawed. But they do not think it was involved in the Shuttle Columbia disaster.
CNN's Kathleen Koch is covering the Columbia hearing and joins us now to sort it all out. Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, basically what this is, is the solid rocket boosters that are on either side of the space shuttle when it on takes off, they're fastened to the external tank behind it by bolts, two bolts on the top, two bolts on the bottom. And at the time that they're done with the rocket boosters, these bolts -- there's a charge and they separate. But they are supposed to be caught inside something called a bolt catcher so they don't then fall back and strike the space shuttle.

Well, what the Columbia accident investigation board revealed today is that they have some radar data that shows something floating away from the space shuttle at about the time that the bolts would have been blowing. And they think it could be potentially a bolt catcher.

And so, basically, what they're going to be doing is they're going to be testing this more. And they say they don't think it had anything, as you said, to do with anything striking the Columbia. But they're looking at it for future missions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. HAL GEHMAN, BOARD CHAIRMAN: What we have here is a possibility that we have found another source of debris. We don't have any evidence that it was a source of debris, except that the radar tracking of the Columbia indicated at the time of SRB separation, 126 seconds, at a time when there's not supposed to be any debris, it noted a piece of debris.

MAJ. GEN. JOHN BERRY, BOARD MEMBER: Long story short is this thing can cause some serious impact damage if, in fact, that -- but there's no indication that it hit the orbiter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, again, they are still primarily focusing on, when it comes to the potential cause of the Columbia accident, the foam, the roughly less than two-pound piece of foam that came off the orbiter 81 seconds in. They're looking at doing more testing on that foam.

Friday they did some tests where they fired with a sort of a rocket. They fired a chunk of the foam at a leading edge of a space shuttle wing, a mockup edge. And they actually announced today that they found it did even more damage than they thought that it did on Friday.

So they're going to do more tests, try to get to the bottom of that. And also this bolt and the bolt catcher, which weighs some 40 pounds, at least the bolt itself. So much more potentially damaging than the foam -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Kathleen Koch giving us a live update now on the Shuttle Columbia. Thanks so much, Kathleen.

KOCH: You bet.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com