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NASA Will Release Columbia Report
Aired August 25, 2003 - 15:34 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Some soul searching lies ahead for NASA which tomorrow scheduled release of the Columbia report. Some of those who have seen it are predicting a major shakeup over the second shuttle loss of 17 years and the deaths of seven astronauts. Miles O'Brien standing by in Washington. He had an exclusive interview with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Kyra, thanks very much.
This is a big day for NASA as that definitive report comes out from the Columbia accident investigation board headed by retired Admiral Hal Gehman. We know what the lead story is going to be, the probable cause of the shuttle Columbia's loss has already been reported. As a matter of fact, throughout the course of this seven- month investigation, the Gehman Board has released its recommendations and findings as they have become known to them.
Essentially, what we're talking about here is the foam which fell off the space shuttle Columbia 81 seconds after launch. At the time, that was not an unusual thing for NASA launch managers to witness. They had seen foam strike space shuttles several times.
And so they basically dismissed it. Sixteen days later, when Columbia came in, this was the scene we all witnessed as it broke up over Texas. And it is now -- most probably caused by a breach in the wing that was caused by that foam striking the leading edge of the wing.
During some tests conducted by this independent board, foam was fired at a mockup of the shuttle wing and it was proved fairly conclusively that it could cause a fatal breach.
The issue is question is why didn't NASA managers and engineers, when they saw foam falling off external tanks on previous missions, why didn't they order up test like these? I asked the administrator, Sean O'Keefe that question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Why weren't tests like that, though, conducted the moment they knew foam was falling off that...
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Good question. That's a very good question. And I don't know. It's a factor that we really need to not -- well, in the future, we've really got to focus on, is looking at any of those anomalies that we can't explain, to actually go through the effort to make sure that anything we can't understand, we've never seen, or that we've seen repetitively and had different consequences, we've got to know what the results are through the analysis, much more thoroughly than we've done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Join me later tonight with my full and exclusive interview with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. That will be on "NEWSNIGHT" with Aaron Brown at 10:00 Eastern.
And then be sure to be with us tomorrow as we'll provide some full and complete coverage of the release of the report on the space shuttle Columbia loss and what it means for the future of American manned space flight and the space agency in general -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Miles. Thank you.
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 August 25, 2003 - 15:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Some soul searching lies ahead for NASA which tomorrow scheduled release of the Columbia report. Some of those who have seen it are predicting a major shakeup over the second shuttle loss of 17 years and the deaths of seven astronauts. Miles O'Brien standing by in Washington. He had an exclusive interview with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Kyra, thanks very much.
This is a big day for NASA as that definitive report comes out from the Columbia accident investigation board headed by retired Admiral Hal Gehman. We know what the lead story is going to be, the probable cause of the shuttle Columbia's loss has already been reported. As a matter of fact, throughout the course of this seven- month investigation, the Gehman Board has released its recommendations and findings as they have become known to them.
Essentially, what we're talking about here is the foam which fell off the space shuttle Columbia 81 seconds after launch. At the time, that was not an unusual thing for NASA launch managers to witness. They had seen foam strike space shuttles several times.
And so they basically dismissed it. Sixteen days later, when Columbia came in, this was the scene we all witnessed as it broke up over Texas. And it is now -- most probably caused by a breach in the wing that was caused by that foam striking the leading edge of the wing.
During some tests conducted by this independent board, foam was fired at a mockup of the shuttle wing and it was proved fairly conclusively that it could cause a fatal breach.
The issue is question is why didn't NASA managers and engineers, when they saw foam falling off external tanks on previous missions, why didn't they order up test like these? I asked the administrator, Sean O'Keefe that question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Why weren't tests like that, though, conducted the moment they knew foam was falling off that...
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Good question. That's a very good question. And I don't know. It's a factor that we really need to not -- well, in the future, we've really got to focus on, is looking at any of those anomalies that we can't explain, to actually go through the effort to make sure that anything we can't understand, we've never seen, or that we've seen repetitively and had different consequences, we've got to know what the results are through the analysis, much more thoroughly than we've done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Join me later tonight with my full and exclusive interview with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. That will be on "NEWSNIGHT" with Aaron Brown at 10:00 Eastern.
And then be sure to be with us tomorrow as we'll provide some full and complete coverage of the release of the report on the space shuttle Columbia loss and what it means for the future of American manned space flight and the space agency in general -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Miles. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
