Newspaper Article

NASA OFFICIAL SAYS SHUTTLE PROGRAM HAD MAJOR FLAWS

PHILIP M. BOFFEY, Special to the New York Times

1986

Overview

Dr. [Richard P. Feynman], a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, said that typically in flight readiness reviews, conducted a week or two before launchings, space agency officials would ''agonize whether they can go'' even though the seals might have eroded on the previous flight. But then, if they decided to launch and the flight succeeded, he said, on the next flight they lowered their standards a bit because they ''got away with it the last time.'' He described the process as ''a kind of Russian roulette'' or a ''perpetual movement heading for trouble.'' William P. Rogers, chairman of the commission, said the group was considering ''some kind of independent safety panel.'' Dr. Feynman said that ''what's missing'' now is a safety board that can ''ride herd on safety problems and get them resolved.'' When asked if the astronauts, in flying nine shuttle missions in 1985, felt they had ''too much to do,'' John W. Young Jr., chief of the astronaut office, said that ''it is hard for me to see how we could do a lot more'' because ''people are just working long hours.'' He acknowledged that ''it would have been pretty tough'' to meet the schedule of 15 flights planned for 1986, before the Challenger blew up and operations were suspended. Concern About the Pace

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: ACCIDENTS AND SAFETY / ALDRICH, ARNOLD D / ASTRONAUTICS / ASTRONAUTS / BOFFEY, PHILIP M / EXPLOSIONS / FEYNMAN, RICHARD P / JARVIS, GREGORY B / MCAULIFFE, CHRISTA / MCNAIR, RONALD E (DR) / ONIZUKA, ELLISON S (LT COL) / RESNIK, JUDITH A (DR) / ROCKETS AND ROCKET PROPULSION / SCOBEE, FRANCIS R (COMDR) / SMITH, MICHAEL (ASTRONAUT) / SPACE SHUTTLE