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American Morning

Interview With NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe

Aired June 09, 2003 - 09:35   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking in on NASA now, the independent team investigating the Columbia shuttle disaster is expected to finish up its report next month. But as the panel wraps up the investigation, an outline of the report is out there circulating. For reaction now from Washington, our guest is NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe. Mr. O'Keefe, good morning. Thanks for being with us.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Morning, Daryn. How are you doing?

KAGAN: I am doing good. First, I just want to get a little bit of the news of the day in here before we get to Columbia, and that is the Mars exploration rover, supposed to launch it yesterday. Weather a problem. Two chances today. What's the update on the rover?

O'KEEFE: About the same as it was yesterday. Again, our whole approach on safety is absolutely nothing should be amiss before we launch something like this. So yesterday's weather forecast was about 50/50. It proved to be impossible towards the middle of the afternoon yesterday. So we deferred it to today, and I think it's about the same today. So we will just take it day by day.

KAGAN: That we will. All right. Let's move on to this report, though, coming out about the Columbia disaster, being headed up by an independent team by retired Admiral Harold Gehman. He himself says there's really going to be no show-stopper in this report, and yet there are some pretty tough charges against NASA. One talking about the culture, and I want to share it with our audience, a quote that comes from "The New York Times" article yesterday, from an engineer -- an anonymous engineer working within NASA who writes, "You get a lot people coming back and saying it's fine" -- this is if you are trying to point out some flaws -- "coming back and saying it is fine, because if you change it, it means it is wrong and nothing can be wrong because we are safe to fly."

What would you say about that criticism of the NASA culture?

O'KEEFE: Well, I think the attitude we try to continue to promote, and will redouble our efforts, at least to do, is to demonstrate that it is safe to fly rather than having the burden of proof on someone to prove that it's not. So that's been a very dominant theme since Challenger, and one we want to reemphasize and continue, and it means we've got to redouble our efforts when you hear comments like that.

(CROSSTALK) KAGAN: But was that fair? Do you believe that that culture existed, that people would not feel comfortable coming forward and saying something's wrong?

O'KEEFE: Well, you're never going to get 100 percent of folks out there of that view, but we're certainly trying to motivate that and continue it. There are lots of different ways in reporting systems that go outside the normal chain of command for anyone who believes that there is anything amiss, there is an attitude and certainly an environment of, raise your hand and articulate, you don't even need to prove it, that something is unsafe and we'll stop the action. And anybody who feels that's different, we've got to constantly redouble our efforts to demonstrate that's the case. So we have got more work to do, that is for sure.

KAGAN: Also a criticism that NASA has been over-privatized, and that creates a wrong kind of culture of bringing it under the dollar rather than the safest?

O'KEEFE: Well, I'm not sure of what the conclusions of the board will be on that. I've heard, certainly, the public comments from their hearings and the press conferences that they've made, but they're not reaching any conclusions on that point. And if anything, the observations in the last couple of days that I've seen from the board members is that all the trends appear to have been more favorable in terms of improvements of safety procedures, improvement of on-time performance, improvements of cost and delivery and so forth as a consequence of the efforts engaged in in the middle of last decade to move this largely by private contract, but I've got an open mind about it, and we are going to take a look at it.

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: All right. We just have a minute left here, so I just want to get a few quick questions in here. When will the space shuttle fly again?

O'KEEFE: Our hope is that if we can pull together all the recommendations and findings and implement as expeditiously and as safely as humanly possible, is to fly as early as the early part of next year.

KAGAN: And will astronauts be on board?

O'KEEFE: Absolutely.

KAGAN: And are you...

O'KEEFE: Got to go to the International Space Station in order to return the crew that is there as well as provide resupply and new segments of the station to finish construction of that marvelous laboratory.

KAGAN: I was only asking because there are definitely those who suggested it should fly without astronauts on board. And just real quickly, are you the man to take NASA into the next chapter, a safe chapter of the agency?

O'KEEFE: I serve at the pleasure of the president, and I do whatever he tells me, and at this moment, for this day, certainly I'm proceeding in that manner. You bet.

KAGAN: All right. Sean O'Keefe, chief NASA administrator, thank you for your time, sir. Appreciate it.

O'KEEFE: Thanks very much.

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 9, 2003 - 09:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking in on NASA now, the independent team investigating the Columbia shuttle disaster is expected to finish up its report next month. But as the panel wraps up the investigation, an outline of the report is out there circulating. For reaction now from Washington, our guest is NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe. Mr. O'Keefe, good morning. Thanks for being with us.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Morning, Daryn. How are you doing?

KAGAN: I am doing good. First, I just want to get a little bit of the news of the day in here before we get to Columbia, and that is the Mars exploration rover, supposed to launch it yesterday. Weather a problem. Two chances today. What's the update on the rover?

O'KEEFE: About the same as it was yesterday. Again, our whole approach on safety is absolutely nothing should be amiss before we launch something like this. So yesterday's weather forecast was about 50/50. It proved to be impossible towards the middle of the afternoon yesterday. So we deferred it to today, and I think it's about the same today. So we will just take it day by day.

KAGAN: That we will. All right. Let's move on to this report, though, coming out about the Columbia disaster, being headed up by an independent team by retired Admiral Harold Gehman. He himself says there's really going to be no show-stopper in this report, and yet there are some pretty tough charges against NASA. One talking about the culture, and I want to share it with our audience, a quote that comes from "The New York Times" article yesterday, from an engineer -- an anonymous engineer working within NASA who writes, "You get a lot people coming back and saying it's fine" -- this is if you are trying to point out some flaws -- "coming back and saying it is fine, because if you change it, it means it is wrong and nothing can be wrong because we are safe to fly."

What would you say about that criticism of the NASA culture?

O'KEEFE: Well, I think the attitude we try to continue to promote, and will redouble our efforts, at least to do, is to demonstrate that it is safe to fly rather than having the burden of proof on someone to prove that it's not. So that's been a very dominant theme since Challenger, and one we want to reemphasize and continue, and it means we've got to redouble our efforts when you hear comments like that.

(CROSSTALK) KAGAN: But was that fair? Do you believe that that culture existed, that people would not feel comfortable coming forward and saying something's wrong?

O'KEEFE: Well, you're never going to get 100 percent of folks out there of that view, but we're certainly trying to motivate that and continue it. There are lots of different ways in reporting systems that go outside the normal chain of command for anyone who believes that there is anything amiss, there is an attitude and certainly an environment of, raise your hand and articulate, you don't even need to prove it, that something is unsafe and we'll stop the action. And anybody who feels that's different, we've got to constantly redouble our efforts to demonstrate that's the case. So we have got more work to do, that is for sure.

KAGAN: Also a criticism that NASA has been over-privatized, and that creates a wrong kind of culture of bringing it under the dollar rather than the safest?

O'KEEFE: Well, I'm not sure of what the conclusions of the board will be on that. I've heard, certainly, the public comments from their hearings and the press conferences that they've made, but they're not reaching any conclusions on that point. And if anything, the observations in the last couple of days that I've seen from the board members is that all the trends appear to have been more favorable in terms of improvements of safety procedures, improvement of on-time performance, improvements of cost and delivery and so forth as a consequence of the efforts engaged in in the middle of last decade to move this largely by private contract, but I've got an open mind about it, and we are going to take a look at it.

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: All right. We just have a minute left here, so I just want to get a few quick questions in here. When will the space shuttle fly again?

O'KEEFE: Our hope is that if we can pull together all the recommendations and findings and implement as expeditiously and as safely as humanly possible, is to fly as early as the early part of next year.

KAGAN: And will astronauts be on board?

O'KEEFE: Absolutely.

KAGAN: And are you...

O'KEEFE: Got to go to the International Space Station in order to return the crew that is there as well as provide resupply and new segments of the station to finish construction of that marvelous laboratory.

KAGAN: I was only asking because there are definitely those who suggested it should fly without astronauts on board. And just real quickly, are you the man to take NASA into the next chapter, a safe chapter of the agency?

O'KEEFE: I serve at the pleasure of the president, and I do whatever he tells me, and at this moment, for this day, certainly I'm proceeding in that manner. You bet.

KAGAN: All right. Sean O'Keefe, chief NASA administrator, thank you for your time, sir. Appreciate it.

O'KEEFE: Thanks very much.

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