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American Morning
Talk with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe
Aired May 12, 2003 - 08:16 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, some members in Congress are angry that they cannot get access to closed door testimony from NASA officials about the Columbia disaster. The law makers say that testimony is critical to their understanding of the accident.
The chairman investigating, Retired Admiral Harold Gehman, refused our request for an interview today. His office, though, did release a statement and saying, and quoting now, "The Columbia Accident Investigation Board determined it could only provide a deep and rich review of NASA policies and procedures if it employed standard safety investigation procedures, which allow witnesses to talk with investigators under a guarantee of confidentiality."
Congressman Bart Gordon, the ranking Democrat of the House Space & Aeronautics Subcommittee, talked to us last hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BART GORDON (D-TN), HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE: I'm not opposed to confidentiality of the individuals, their names. But we need to have the information. It needs to be available. Certainly if Secretary Rumsfeld and the Pentagon can brief members of Congress daily on a top secret, members only basis, on what's going on Iraq, that the Science Committee should have access to this information to do its job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: For the other side now, NASA's administrator, Sean O'Keefe, is our guest now live in D.C.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Nice to see you and you here.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning, Bill.
How are you doing?
HEMMER: Why not open it up? Why keep it a secret?
O'KEEFE: Well, that's Hal Gehman's call. I mean he is the chairman of the Independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He is discussing the release of information that he is gathering and his board is gathering with members of Congress and with the appropriate committees of jurisdiction and I'm confident they'll work that out. But as far as NASA is concerned, we're prepared to live with whatever understanding and arrangement that they work out.
HEMMER: Can you see the credibility issue here that's starting to arise within members of the House looking into the disaster?
O'KEEFE: Sure. I mean there's always going to be a question about exactly how much information should be available. And to be sure, this has been a public process. They've held several hearings a week. Theyve held a press conference regularly. The Independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board is doing its work in a manner in which is accepted investigative practices and I'm sure in the course of release of all that information that they'll find an accommodation with all the appropriate oversight committees and concerns that are out there.
HEMMER: What...
O'KEEFE: But I don't see that as being a real credibility concern.
HEMMER: We want to take you back then to early February. Listen to a short quote from General Michael Kostelnik as he talked with reporters about how this investigation would be handled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL KOSTELNIK, EXCHANGE OFFICE SPACE SHUTTLE: You will be able to watch this process live play out over the next weeks and months as necessary to get to the decision. This will be probably the most open accident investigation on the magnitude of this scale that people have experienced in this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Process play out live, he says. Most open accident investigation. What happened to that pledge?
O'KEEFE: Well, I think it's happened. I mean we see every week they conduct several public hearings which go on for hours on end in various locales around the country, in which they're gathering the evidence and the information.
The only issue at play here, I think, is that the individual meetings they're having with individuals who were involved in the operational mission during the course of that -- and, again, that's entirely the call of the Independent Accident Investigation Board. There were members of Congress and others in the public who were very insistent that this be an independent board. Well, they are independent. And so the choice in terms of how they feel it's necessary to garner the information and understand the facts that are involved on an individual basis is just another supplementary effort there.
Again, I am certain that the chairman of the board will work out an appropriate accommodation in order to assure that all the information is out.
HEMMER: Let's talk about the future for the space shuttle program right now. There are critical articles again today, "Washington Post" you see it, the "L.A. Times" you see it, as well. Dana Rohrbach, a Republican, sits on that House committee that I mentioned a short time ago. Recently he said this about the shuttle program. I'll put it up on the screen so our viewers can see it.
"We should spend nothing to improve and upgrade the shuttle. One would expect it would be on the way out, yet we hear these people still plans to use the shuttle from here to forever. Maybe they're thinking of the way things work in some other solar system because none of that makes any sense to me. It shows just how bad they have been at planning and managing America's space program."
Your reaction to that accusation?
O'KEEFE: Well, again, I think, you know, Chairman Rohrbach is certainly a valued and important member of the oversight committee of Congress on the Science Committee. And his understanding of all this certainly goes back a long time.
The fact of it is that we are looking at an asset, the shuttle system, three of which are in operation that are on the order of magnitude of 10 to 15 years old, depending on which one you're talking about. That's still a very important workhorse we're going to need to complete the international space station, to service the Hubble telescope. And we are planning replacements for crew transfer in the next few years we'll have that online -- as well as looking longer- term on what (UNINTELLIGIBLE) will be.
HEMMER: So there's no back down on the shuttle program then at this point?
O'KEEFE: I don't see it. And I think that basically all the public information that has been released and has been worked through as part of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board will demonstrate this is a very sturdy article, the shuttle system itself. There certainly was a flaw that clearly created this terrible tragedy and we're going to find out what that was, fix it and return to safe flight as expeditiously as we can.
HEMMER: Sean O'Keefe, administrator for NASA, thanks for talking with us today.
Good to see you again.
O'KEEFE: Thank you, Bill.
Nice to be with 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 May 12, 2003 - 08:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, some members in Congress are angry that they cannot get access to closed door testimony from NASA officials about the Columbia disaster. The law makers say that testimony is critical to their understanding of the accident.
The chairman investigating, Retired Admiral Harold Gehman, refused our request for an interview today. His office, though, did release a statement and saying, and quoting now, "The Columbia Accident Investigation Board determined it could only provide a deep and rich review of NASA policies and procedures if it employed standard safety investigation procedures, which allow witnesses to talk with investigators under a guarantee of confidentiality."
Congressman Bart Gordon, the ranking Democrat of the House Space & Aeronautics Subcommittee, talked to us last hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BART GORDON (D-TN), HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE: I'm not opposed to confidentiality of the individuals, their names. But we need to have the information. It needs to be available. Certainly if Secretary Rumsfeld and the Pentagon can brief members of Congress daily on a top secret, members only basis, on what's going on Iraq, that the Science Committee should have access to this information to do its job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: For the other side now, NASA's administrator, Sean O'Keefe, is our guest now live in D.C.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Nice to see you and you here.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning, Bill.
How are you doing?
HEMMER: Why not open it up? Why keep it a secret?
O'KEEFE: Well, that's Hal Gehman's call. I mean he is the chairman of the Independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He is discussing the release of information that he is gathering and his board is gathering with members of Congress and with the appropriate committees of jurisdiction and I'm confident they'll work that out. But as far as NASA is concerned, we're prepared to live with whatever understanding and arrangement that they work out.
HEMMER: Can you see the credibility issue here that's starting to arise within members of the House looking into the disaster?
O'KEEFE: Sure. I mean there's always going to be a question about exactly how much information should be available. And to be sure, this has been a public process. They've held several hearings a week. Theyve held a press conference regularly. The Independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board is doing its work in a manner in which is accepted investigative practices and I'm sure in the course of release of all that information that they'll find an accommodation with all the appropriate oversight committees and concerns that are out there.
HEMMER: What...
O'KEEFE: But I don't see that as being a real credibility concern.
HEMMER: We want to take you back then to early February. Listen to a short quote from General Michael Kostelnik as he talked with reporters about how this investigation would be handled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL KOSTELNIK, EXCHANGE OFFICE SPACE SHUTTLE: You will be able to watch this process live play out over the next weeks and months as necessary to get to the decision. This will be probably the most open accident investigation on the magnitude of this scale that people have experienced in this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Process play out live, he says. Most open accident investigation. What happened to that pledge?
O'KEEFE: Well, I think it's happened. I mean we see every week they conduct several public hearings which go on for hours on end in various locales around the country, in which they're gathering the evidence and the information.
The only issue at play here, I think, is that the individual meetings they're having with individuals who were involved in the operational mission during the course of that -- and, again, that's entirely the call of the Independent Accident Investigation Board. There were members of Congress and others in the public who were very insistent that this be an independent board. Well, they are independent. And so the choice in terms of how they feel it's necessary to garner the information and understand the facts that are involved on an individual basis is just another supplementary effort there.
Again, I am certain that the chairman of the board will work out an appropriate accommodation in order to assure that all the information is out.
HEMMER: Let's talk about the future for the space shuttle program right now. There are critical articles again today, "Washington Post" you see it, the "L.A. Times" you see it, as well. Dana Rohrbach, a Republican, sits on that House committee that I mentioned a short time ago. Recently he said this about the shuttle program. I'll put it up on the screen so our viewers can see it.
"We should spend nothing to improve and upgrade the shuttle. One would expect it would be on the way out, yet we hear these people still plans to use the shuttle from here to forever. Maybe they're thinking of the way things work in some other solar system because none of that makes any sense to me. It shows just how bad they have been at planning and managing America's space program."
Your reaction to that accusation?
O'KEEFE: Well, again, I think, you know, Chairman Rohrbach is certainly a valued and important member of the oversight committee of Congress on the Science Committee. And his understanding of all this certainly goes back a long time.
The fact of it is that we are looking at an asset, the shuttle system, three of which are in operation that are on the order of magnitude of 10 to 15 years old, depending on which one you're talking about. That's still a very important workhorse we're going to need to complete the international space station, to service the Hubble telescope. And we are planning replacements for crew transfer in the next few years we'll have that online -- as well as looking longer- term on what (UNINTELLIGIBLE) will be.
HEMMER: So there's no back down on the shuttle program then at this point?
O'KEEFE: I don't see it. And I think that basically all the public information that has been released and has been worked through as part of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board will demonstrate this is a very sturdy article, the shuttle system itself. There certainly was a flaw that clearly created this terrible tragedy and we're going to find out what that was, fix it and return to safe flight as expeditiously as we can.
HEMMER: Sean O'Keefe, administrator for NASA, thanks for talking with us today.
Good to see you again.
O'KEEFE: Thank you, Bill.
Nice to be with 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
