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American Morning

NASA Engineer: Escape Pods Are Needed

Aired June 25, 2003 - 08:08   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, ANCHOR: A member of the Columbia accident investigation board says he believes he knows what caused the disaster.
Roger Tetrault, who oversees the examination of debris, says it's highly probable that the orbiter was damaged during liftoff by a chunk of foam that broke off a fuel tank. Not all the board members completely support that assessment, by the way.

Joining us now from Houston to discuss the latest on the investigation and NASA's plans to resume shuttle flights, former NASA engineer Don Nelson.

Don, good morning.

DON NELSON, FORMER NASA ENGINEER: Good morning.

KAGAN: First I want to get to this resumption of shuttle flights. Harold Gehman, who's heading up the independent panel to look at the Columbia disaster, believes the shuttle could start flying again as early as January. Does that surprise you?

NELSON: Well, this morning I read in the "Houston Chronicle" that he also said that he wants to see a crew escape system put on that vehicle. And if that's the case, it's going to take three years to do that. And that's wonderful news because absolutely, that vehicle should not go back in service without a crew escape system.

KAGAN: Explain how that would work.

NELSON: What it would be, it would be some pods inside the cabin. And in the event of an accident like the Columbia accident, the pods would eject the crew out and the pods would protect the crew during the entry phase or during an ascent phase.

KAGAN: So you're saying, as a former NASA engineer, if you want to build that, that's least going to take three years to build it and get it working?

NELSON: It's a three-year program at the very minimum.

KAGAN: Let's look at this issue now of foam. The clues pointing to the foam on the external fuel tanks. This seems to be coming up over and over again.

NELSON: That's correct. But then again, we're not sure that's the case. As we said originally, that there's three causes of the accident. It's either the foam, it's either an error in the way the maintenance was done, or it was struck by space debris. And we'll never know that answer. But we do know that the thermal protection system was breeched, and that is another reason we absolutely must have crew escape pods on that vehicle because it can be breeched again.

KAGAN: So what you're saying is we know the what of what happened but don't know the why, probably will never have the why. But you have to have, then, the how. How are you going to get out of it if something like that happens again?

NELSON: That's right. We need to know what we need to do, not only for this accident but for any accident and the crew escape pods are the answer.

KAGAN: And then finally, of course, this is about science, but mainly its about people and the seven astronauts who lost their lives on board Columbia. NASA released some tapes yesterday and we have those tapes that we can share with our viewers.

This is 10 hours of videotape, or some of it, at least. It was taken during the doomed flight of Columbia, toward the end, I believe. It shows the seven crew members enjoying themselves, going about their normal activities in space. This is a part of number of not just videotape but also some still pictures that somehow survived the crash.

Don, just to share your thoughts. As you're watching these crew members, Ilan Ramon, woken up by the last time by a song that his wife requested. You see Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, Billy McCool, among the crew. They look so happy, so in their element, and yet you know now what is about to come.

NELSON: These are our finest people. And we let them down by not giving them crew escape pods on that vehicle. If that tape survived, if we'd those crew escape pods, they would have survived. And we must not let this happen ever again.

KAGAN: Let that go on in their memory.

Don Nelson, thanks for joining us. Don, appreciate your insight.

NELSON: 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 June 25, 2003 - 08:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, ANCHOR: A member of the Columbia accident investigation board says he believes he knows what caused the disaster.
Roger Tetrault, who oversees the examination of debris, says it's highly probable that the orbiter was damaged during liftoff by a chunk of foam that broke off a fuel tank. Not all the board members completely support that assessment, by the way.

Joining us now from Houston to discuss the latest on the investigation and NASA's plans to resume shuttle flights, former NASA engineer Don Nelson.

Don, good morning.

DON NELSON, FORMER NASA ENGINEER: Good morning.

KAGAN: First I want to get to this resumption of shuttle flights. Harold Gehman, who's heading up the independent panel to look at the Columbia disaster, believes the shuttle could start flying again as early as January. Does that surprise you?

NELSON: Well, this morning I read in the "Houston Chronicle" that he also said that he wants to see a crew escape system put on that vehicle. And if that's the case, it's going to take three years to do that. And that's wonderful news because absolutely, that vehicle should not go back in service without a crew escape system.

KAGAN: Explain how that would work.

NELSON: What it would be, it would be some pods inside the cabin. And in the event of an accident like the Columbia accident, the pods would eject the crew out and the pods would protect the crew during the entry phase or during an ascent phase.

KAGAN: So you're saying, as a former NASA engineer, if you want to build that, that's least going to take three years to build it and get it working?

NELSON: It's a three-year program at the very minimum.

KAGAN: Let's look at this issue now of foam. The clues pointing to the foam on the external fuel tanks. This seems to be coming up over and over again.

NELSON: That's correct. But then again, we're not sure that's the case. As we said originally, that there's three causes of the accident. It's either the foam, it's either an error in the way the maintenance was done, or it was struck by space debris. And we'll never know that answer. But we do know that the thermal protection system was breeched, and that is another reason we absolutely must have crew escape pods on that vehicle because it can be breeched again.

KAGAN: So what you're saying is we know the what of what happened but don't know the why, probably will never have the why. But you have to have, then, the how. How are you going to get out of it if something like that happens again?

NELSON: That's right. We need to know what we need to do, not only for this accident but for any accident and the crew escape pods are the answer.

KAGAN: And then finally, of course, this is about science, but mainly its about people and the seven astronauts who lost their lives on board Columbia. NASA released some tapes yesterday and we have those tapes that we can share with our viewers.

This is 10 hours of videotape, or some of it, at least. It was taken during the doomed flight of Columbia, toward the end, I believe. It shows the seven crew members enjoying themselves, going about their normal activities in space. This is a part of number of not just videotape but also some still pictures that somehow survived the crash.

Don, just to share your thoughts. As you're watching these crew members, Ilan Ramon, woken up by the last time by a song that his wife requested. You see Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, Billy McCool, among the crew. They look so happy, so in their element, and yet you know now what is about to come.

NELSON: These are our finest people. And we let them down by not giving them crew escape pods on that vehicle. If that tape survived, if we'd those crew escape pods, they would have survived. And we must not let this happen ever again.

KAGAN: Let that go on in their memory.

Don Nelson, thanks for joining us. Don, appreciate your insight.

NELSON: 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