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American Morning
NASA Officials Hoping Information from Final Minutes Provides Clues
Aired February 03, 2003 - 07:33 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: It is far too early to say what caused the Columbia space shuttle disaster. NASA officials are hoping that information from the final minutes of the flight will provide clues.
Joining us now with more from the Kennedy Space Center is Daryn Kagan, who's been there most of the weekend -- good morning, Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, good morning to you.
A lot to take care of today. The investigation, of course, does go on. Also, very important preparations continue for tomorrow's memorial service for the seven astronauts. That's going to take place in Texas.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, Paula, I know you had a chance to talk with him just a couple of minutes ago, 11:00 a.m. Eastern, he will be meeting with President Bush. He goes from that White House meeting to Capitol Hill, where he will be briefing 16 members of Congress about the disaster and the investigation.
Right here in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center, the head administrator here, Roy Bridges, will be addressing the employees. It's like a family here at Kennedy Space Center, and they haven't had a chance to gather and be with each other and talk to their leader since the disaster happened on Saturday.
And, finally, NASA announcing that today begins their twice a day daily briefings, 11:30 a.m. Eastern and 4:30 p.m. Eastern. The first is going to come out of Washington, D.C., the second out of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Of course, you're going to see both of those news conferences live in their entirety right here on CNN -- Paula, back to you.
ZAHN: See you in a little bit, Daryn.
Thanks so much.
Years before the Colombia catastrophe, Don Nelson who spent 36 years as a NASA engineer before retiring in 1999, raised some pretty pointed safety questions about the shuttle program. Just last summer, fearing a disaster, he made an urgent appeal to the White House to stop all shuttle launches.
Of course, that idea was rejected.
Don Nelson joins us now from Johnson Space Center in Houston. Thanks for being with us this morning, sir.
Why were you so concerned about the safety of the shuttle program?
DON NELSON, FORMER NASA ENGINEER: Well, there were a lot of warning signs that we were going to have a problem and we, you know, I didn't want to stop them, I just wanted to limit the amount of, the number of crew that was on the vehicle. I suggested four to the president because there was such a high probability that we were going to have another failure. And also we've been very, very concerned that there's not a crew escape system on the shuttle.
And we've been working hard trying to get one on there and we've been un -- we were unsuccessful when I was a NASA engineer and so I retired and set up an organization called the Concerned American Aerospace Engineers to work and try to work outside the NASA, outside of NASA to try to get that crew escape module on the vehicle and to automate the vehicle to get the costs down and get the crew escape module and make that a safer vehicle to fly.
ZAHN: In the case of Columbia, based on what we know so far, would an escape module have saved the lives of these astronauts?
NELSON: It would have been very marginal, but at least it would gave them a shot. And every time we can, you have a shot to save our crews, we ought to be doing that.
ZAHN: But right now they're not even sure what the specific warning signs were. You probably listened to most of the news conference yesterday.
How would an escape module have been used in the case of Columbia and what we know about the last minutes of its flight?
NELSON: What an escape module would do is that it would be hooked into the main computers and it would monitor everything going on. So when you had an instance where the vehicle did a rapid maneuver like this one did when the wing came off, it would activate the escape modules and eject them out into the atmosphere.
ZAHN: I want to share with our audience a little bit of a letter you wrote to President Bush in August of 2002 where you said, "Our space shuttle astronauts are in eminent danger. NASA management and the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel have failed to respond to the warning signs of another shuttle accident."
Without knowing the cause of this accident, is it even possible to speculate on the specific warning signs that the Shuttle Columbia might have been in danger?
NELSON: Well, there's warning signs for, we've had warning signs for a number of flights in the past, and most of them we've caught on the ground. But like I say, the automated systems would be able to identify when the vehicle wasn't operating within its operational envelope and get those people out. And that's the warning signs I'm talking about for the escape capsule.
But the other warning signs were, that we've had for the last, oh, four years, of cracks in the main engines and the electrical wiring failures and just numerous things like that, which I had put in the letter to the president.
ZAHN: A final question for you this morning, as the head of NASA heads off to not only Capitol Hill but to the White House this morning to talk to President Bush, there is a report that a Russian scientist is now saying that the International Space Station, the end of it for this year is all but inevitable.
Just a final thought on the ramifications of the Columbia disaster.
NELSON: Well, certainly the space station, the operation of it is going to have to be a different operation than we have right now because of the down period to get the shuttle system back up. I think that there will be, you know, there's a lot of failures that's gone on in the past and that we'll have them in the future. But one of the things that we should keep in mind that if mankind is ever going to have a future, it lies somewhere in space.
ZAHN: Don Nelson, former NASA engineer, thank you very much for your perspective this morning.
Appreciate your patience.
NELSON: Thank you.
ZAHN: We had Mr. Nelson waiting outside for a little while this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Provides Clues>
Aired February 3, 2003 - 07:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It is far too early to say what caused the Columbia space shuttle disaster. NASA officials are hoping that information from the final minutes of the flight will provide clues.
Joining us now with more from the Kennedy Space Center is Daryn Kagan, who's been there most of the weekend -- good morning, Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, good morning to you.
A lot to take care of today. The investigation, of course, does go on. Also, very important preparations continue for tomorrow's memorial service for the seven astronauts. That's going to take place in Texas.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, Paula, I know you had a chance to talk with him just a couple of minutes ago, 11:00 a.m. Eastern, he will be meeting with President Bush. He goes from that White House meeting to Capitol Hill, where he will be briefing 16 members of Congress about the disaster and the investigation.
Right here in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center, the head administrator here, Roy Bridges, will be addressing the employees. It's like a family here at Kennedy Space Center, and they haven't had a chance to gather and be with each other and talk to their leader since the disaster happened on Saturday.
And, finally, NASA announcing that today begins their twice a day daily briefings, 11:30 a.m. Eastern and 4:30 p.m. Eastern. The first is going to come out of Washington, D.C., the second out of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Of course, you're going to see both of those news conferences live in their entirety right here on CNN -- Paula, back to you.
ZAHN: See you in a little bit, Daryn.
Thanks so much.
Years before the Colombia catastrophe, Don Nelson who spent 36 years as a NASA engineer before retiring in 1999, raised some pretty pointed safety questions about the shuttle program. Just last summer, fearing a disaster, he made an urgent appeal to the White House to stop all shuttle launches.
Of course, that idea was rejected.
Don Nelson joins us now from Johnson Space Center in Houston. Thanks for being with us this morning, sir.
Why were you so concerned about the safety of the shuttle program?
DON NELSON, FORMER NASA ENGINEER: Well, there were a lot of warning signs that we were going to have a problem and we, you know, I didn't want to stop them, I just wanted to limit the amount of, the number of crew that was on the vehicle. I suggested four to the president because there was such a high probability that we were going to have another failure. And also we've been very, very concerned that there's not a crew escape system on the shuttle.
And we've been working hard trying to get one on there and we've been un -- we were unsuccessful when I was a NASA engineer and so I retired and set up an organization called the Concerned American Aerospace Engineers to work and try to work outside the NASA, outside of NASA to try to get that crew escape module on the vehicle and to automate the vehicle to get the costs down and get the crew escape module and make that a safer vehicle to fly.
ZAHN: In the case of Columbia, based on what we know so far, would an escape module have saved the lives of these astronauts?
NELSON: It would have been very marginal, but at least it would gave them a shot. And every time we can, you have a shot to save our crews, we ought to be doing that.
ZAHN: But right now they're not even sure what the specific warning signs were. You probably listened to most of the news conference yesterday.
How would an escape module have been used in the case of Columbia and what we know about the last minutes of its flight?
NELSON: What an escape module would do is that it would be hooked into the main computers and it would monitor everything going on. So when you had an instance where the vehicle did a rapid maneuver like this one did when the wing came off, it would activate the escape modules and eject them out into the atmosphere.
ZAHN: I want to share with our audience a little bit of a letter you wrote to President Bush in August of 2002 where you said, "Our space shuttle astronauts are in eminent danger. NASA management and the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel have failed to respond to the warning signs of another shuttle accident."
Without knowing the cause of this accident, is it even possible to speculate on the specific warning signs that the Shuttle Columbia might have been in danger?
NELSON: Well, there's warning signs for, we've had warning signs for a number of flights in the past, and most of them we've caught on the ground. But like I say, the automated systems would be able to identify when the vehicle wasn't operating within its operational envelope and get those people out. And that's the warning signs I'm talking about for the escape capsule.
But the other warning signs were, that we've had for the last, oh, four years, of cracks in the main engines and the electrical wiring failures and just numerous things like that, which I had put in the letter to the president.
ZAHN: A final question for you this morning, as the head of NASA heads off to not only Capitol Hill but to the White House this morning to talk to President Bush, there is a report that a Russian scientist is now saying that the International Space Station, the end of it for this year is all but inevitable.
Just a final thought on the ramifications of the Columbia disaster.
NELSON: Well, certainly the space station, the operation of it is going to have to be a different operation than we have right now because of the down period to get the shuttle system back up. I think that there will be, you know, there's a lot of failures that's gone on in the past and that we'll have them in the future. But one of the things that we should keep in mind that if mankind is ever going to have a future, it lies somewhere in space.
ZAHN: Don Nelson, former NASA engineer, thank you very much for your perspective this morning.
Appreciate your patience.
NELSON: Thank you.
ZAHN: We had Mr. Nelson waiting outside for a little while this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Provides Clues>
