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American Morning

Interview with Sean O'Keefe, NASA Administrator

Aired February 10, 2003 - 07:18   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: NASA investigators are studying some new clues, hoping to pinpoint the cause of the shuttle disaster. Among them: an image from military radar showing that something might have struck the Columbia while it was in space.
Key pieces of the debris are also being examined, including a 2- foot section of Columbia's wing found near Fort Worth, Texas. Investigators still haven't determined if it came from the shuttle's left side, where there had been indications of trouble.

Joining us now from Washington to talk more about the investigation this morning, NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe.

Welcome back, sir -- thanks for joining us this morning.

SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning, Paula. How are you doing?

ZAHN: I'm fine, thanks.

Can we talk a little bit about what your military radar picked up? Do you have any idea of what was flying close to Columbia in space?

O'KEEFE: No, at this juncture, we're just looking at the evidence and the facts that may be coming in, and that was certainly one of them, so as to look at what all of the factors could be, so that the Columbia accident investigation board can help us come to the answers as to what caused this terrible accident. This may be a contributor, it may not be, but it's one of the many theories we're looking at and trying to run to ground to come up with the answers that we need in order to figure out what did happen.

ZAHN: What do you think is the most likely scenario? A piece of the shuttle breaking off, or a piece of space debris or a meteorite?

O'KEEFE: We're trying very hard to avoid any favorite scenario. I think when you do that, you end up going down one line, and maybe at the expense of some other approach or some other theory that may prove ultimately to be more illuminating in terms of what the actual circumstance was that caused this.

So, we're trying very hard to make sure we don't exclude anything. We're trying to make sure all of the facts and the evidence will be there to inform us as to what -- and give us the answers to what caused this, so we can get about the business of trying to figure out what the solution and the fix is to that set of problems, and get back to flying safely.

ZAHN: We want to put up a picture on the screen now that the military released. It's a photograph showing a slight bulge or a deformity along the front edge of the left wing, and a plume coming from the back of the wing just moments before Columbia broke apart. Has this yielded any new information?

O'KEEFE: Well, part of what our analysts are looking at now is trying to determine whether or not this is again evidence of some circumstance during the operation, or whether it's just the quality of the image itself that shows a distortion. And they're still trying to analyze that, break down all of the data, and make sure we've really got some positive information here, as opposed to what could be just otherwise a distortion in the photography.

ZAHN: According to "The New York Times," studies done over the last four years concluded that damage to the material on Columbia's wings posed one of the highest risks of a catastrophic event. The studies focused on the damage that could potentially be caused by a meteorite or other space debris. Do you think the shuttle's wings were vulnerable?

O'KEEFE: Well, it's something we're always tracking, the space debris. Along with our friends in the Defense Department, we are constantly tracking space debris and have made adjustments actually during the course of missions previously, as well as on the International Space Station, to adjust what the orbiting pattern will be in order to avoid collision with any debris.

So, it is a concern. There's no doubt about it. There's nothing you could possibly make that would be invulnerable to the collision of material that's still up there orbiting the earth. But that's part of our efforts to continue safe operations to make sure we're always tracking what's out there to avoid catastrophic collisions like that.

ZAHN: Finally this morning, what about a report in "The Wall Street Journal" that potentially a block of ice could have formed on a water vent, a wastewater vent? Is that a theory you're pursuing seriously?

O'KEEFE: Sure, absolutely. It's one of many, and we're trying to make sure that we get the evidence and the facts involved there. There's a crew that examines the external tank and the solid rocket boosters before every launch, and they literally go over every square inch of those fuel-holding assets to ascertain whether or not the ice pack or the ice collection in any area may be more or less dominant. And if it is, and it's determined to be so, the launch is scrubbed. And in this particular case, all of the factors checked out, the launch was normal, there were absolutely no disqualifying features there, and that's why we continued safe operations.

Having said that, we're going to look at all of that evidence, go back and collect all of the facts before the launch occurred to satisfy ourselves that indeed there wasn't some exception overlooked in that case, because we're trying to, you know, look at every piece of evidence that might tell us what could possibly have caused this terrible accident.

ZAHN: Well, we wish you tremendous luck, and we really appreciate your bringing us up to date this morning on where the investigation lies. Sean O'Keefe, again, good of you to join us.

O'KEEFE: Thank you, Paula -- 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 10, 2003 - 07:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: NASA investigators are studying some new clues, hoping to pinpoint the cause of the shuttle disaster. Among them: an image from military radar showing that something might have struck the Columbia while it was in space.
Key pieces of the debris are also being examined, including a 2- foot section of Columbia's wing found near Fort Worth, Texas. Investigators still haven't determined if it came from the shuttle's left side, where there had been indications of trouble.

Joining us now from Washington to talk more about the investigation this morning, NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe.

Welcome back, sir -- thanks for joining us this morning.

SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning, Paula. How are you doing?

ZAHN: I'm fine, thanks.

Can we talk a little bit about what your military radar picked up? Do you have any idea of what was flying close to Columbia in space?

O'KEEFE: No, at this juncture, we're just looking at the evidence and the facts that may be coming in, and that was certainly one of them, so as to look at what all of the factors could be, so that the Columbia accident investigation board can help us come to the answers as to what caused this terrible accident. This may be a contributor, it may not be, but it's one of the many theories we're looking at and trying to run to ground to come up with the answers that we need in order to figure out what did happen.

ZAHN: What do you think is the most likely scenario? A piece of the shuttle breaking off, or a piece of space debris or a meteorite?

O'KEEFE: We're trying very hard to avoid any favorite scenario. I think when you do that, you end up going down one line, and maybe at the expense of some other approach or some other theory that may prove ultimately to be more illuminating in terms of what the actual circumstance was that caused this.

So, we're trying very hard to make sure we don't exclude anything. We're trying to make sure all of the facts and the evidence will be there to inform us as to what -- and give us the answers to what caused this, so we can get about the business of trying to figure out what the solution and the fix is to that set of problems, and get back to flying safely.

ZAHN: We want to put up a picture on the screen now that the military released. It's a photograph showing a slight bulge or a deformity along the front edge of the left wing, and a plume coming from the back of the wing just moments before Columbia broke apart. Has this yielded any new information?

O'KEEFE: Well, part of what our analysts are looking at now is trying to determine whether or not this is again evidence of some circumstance during the operation, or whether it's just the quality of the image itself that shows a distortion. And they're still trying to analyze that, break down all of the data, and make sure we've really got some positive information here, as opposed to what could be just otherwise a distortion in the photography.

ZAHN: According to "The New York Times," studies done over the last four years concluded that damage to the material on Columbia's wings posed one of the highest risks of a catastrophic event. The studies focused on the damage that could potentially be caused by a meteorite or other space debris. Do you think the shuttle's wings were vulnerable?

O'KEEFE: Well, it's something we're always tracking, the space debris. Along with our friends in the Defense Department, we are constantly tracking space debris and have made adjustments actually during the course of missions previously, as well as on the International Space Station, to adjust what the orbiting pattern will be in order to avoid collision with any debris.

So, it is a concern. There's no doubt about it. There's nothing you could possibly make that would be invulnerable to the collision of material that's still up there orbiting the earth. But that's part of our efforts to continue safe operations to make sure we're always tracking what's out there to avoid catastrophic collisions like that.

ZAHN: Finally this morning, what about a report in "The Wall Street Journal" that potentially a block of ice could have formed on a water vent, a wastewater vent? Is that a theory you're pursuing seriously?

O'KEEFE: Sure, absolutely. It's one of many, and we're trying to make sure that we get the evidence and the facts involved there. There's a crew that examines the external tank and the solid rocket boosters before every launch, and they literally go over every square inch of those fuel-holding assets to ascertain whether or not the ice pack or the ice collection in any area may be more or less dominant. And if it is, and it's determined to be so, the launch is scrubbed. And in this particular case, all of the factors checked out, the launch was normal, there were absolutely no disqualifying features there, and that's why we continued safe operations.

Having said that, we're going to look at all of that evidence, go back and collect all of the facts before the launch occurred to satisfy ourselves that indeed there wasn't some exception overlooked in that case, because we're trying to, you know, look at every piece of evidence that might tell us what could possibly have caused this terrible accident.

ZAHN: Well, we wish you tremendous luck, and we really appreciate your bringing us up to date this morning on where the investigation lies. Sean O'Keefe, again, good of you to join us.

O'KEEFE: Thank you, Paula -- 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.