- One year after the crash of the space shuttle Columbia,
some of the astronauts' families refuse to forgive NASA, claiming its concealment
and "fudging" practice vis-a-vis flight security has not been
uprooted.
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- A memorial service for Israel Air Force Colonel Ilan
Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut and one of the seven astronauts killed
when the Columbia crashed on its return to earth on February 1, 2003, will
take place Sunday morning at the Nahalal cemetery, where he is buried.
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- NASA will also be marking Columbia's crash Sunday, just
a few days after Thursday's commemoration of the anniversary of the death
of the 17 astronauts and two NASA men whose helicopter crashed while looking
for fragments of Columbia.
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- Ilan Ramon's widow Rona has said in interviews that if
her husband had heard of the shortcomings that were discovered after the
crash, he would surely have expressed his disappointment.
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- Jonathan Clark, the widower of astronaut Laurel Clark,
told USA Today that he knows there is still resistance in NASA to the changes
being made following the disaster.
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- The technical reason for the shuttle's crash was the
chunk of foam insulation that detached itself from the fuel tank 81 seconds
after the launch and struck the left wing panel, puncturing it. The deadly
breach allowed hot gases to rip the shuttle apart during its ill-fated
return to Earth.
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- But Admiral Harold Gehman's report on the Columbia crash
makes it clear that it was not caused only by a technical failure but also,
perhaps mainly, because of the way NASA manages its space program.
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- "The seven astronauts are not with us because at
the most important moment we failed," NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe
has said.
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- The agency's ineffective leadership failed to keep its
undertaking to do everything possible to ensure the crew's safety, the
report stated. It listed a series of failures in NASA's handling of the
shuttle's malfunction, its ignoring similar hitches for years and its general
policy of cutting costs and keeping schedules at the expense of flight
safety. The report warns of another accident unless the technical, organizational
and policy flaws are corrected.
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- In recent months, NASA has been trying to persuade the
American public that it has learned its lesson. Bill Readdy, NASA associate
administrator for space flights, said "huge changes" have been
made and that when the space shuttle Atlantis is launched it will be the
safest space mission ever.
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- Since the disaster, a special work team is supervising
NASA's implementation of the committee's recommendations. The date for
launching Atlantis to the international space station was postponed from
September 12 to October 10, 2004, and will be put off again, unless NASA
implements the required changes. A member of the team said, "NASA
did not hasten to adopt some of the recommendations," adding he did
not think the changes would be made in time for the scheduled launch.
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- President George W. Bush's space program has infused
new energies into NASA's senior management. The agency's success of landing
two space vehicles on Mars, especially in view of the European failure,
inspired NASA with new life. The agency is encouraging workers to send
signed e-mail messages to the managers, not to hide and not to be afraid
of reporting malfunctions. They hope the change in policy and practice
will help NASA overcome the crash trauma rapidly.
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- For NASA, the days between January 27 and February 1
seem to be the most dangerous of the year. Three fatal accidents, causing
the death of 17 astronauts, including Ilan Ramon, occurred on those days.
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- On January 27, 1967, three astronauts were killed after
a fire broke out before the launching of Apollo 1. The space shuttle Challenger
exploded seconds after being launched on January 28, 1986, killing seven
astronauts.
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- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/389539.html
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