2004 Report (given anonymously to NYT) Found Faults in Use of Shuttle Foam

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times:
2004 Report Found Faults in Use of Shuttle Foam
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: August 4, 2005


HOUSTON, Aug. 3 - An internal NASA report last December warned of deficiencies in the way insulating foam was being applied to sections of the fuel tank to be used on the shuttle Discovery's current mission.

The report was provided to The New York Times by a person outside the space agency who is part of an informal network of people concerned about shuttle safety, and it did not recommend against launching the Discovery. But it delivered a harsh critique of the quality control and practices at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

That plant, managed by a major space contractor, Lockheed Martin, had come under intense criticism after a foam accident at liftoff led to the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven astronauts in 2003.

While the National Aeronautics and Space Administration spent two and a half years and some $200 million to address foam problems after the disaster, they resurfaced on July 26, when a piece of foam as much as 33 inches long broke from the tank two minutes after liftoff. Future shuttle flights have been suspended until the problems are resolved.

The December 2004 report, by Conley Perry, a retired NASA division chief for quality engineering at the Johnson Space Center here, said it was obvious that Lockheed's external tank engineers "did not do a thorough job" of identifying the quirks and variations that can occur when foam is applied by hand. And despite the space agency's insistence that it would not allow scheduling pressures to dictate a return to flight before it was safe, Mr. Perry wrote, its reluctance to re-evaluate the quality-control problems "stems from the 'schedule-first' attitude" of Lockheed Martin management....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/science/space/04foam.html?hp&ex=1123128000&en=490a110565248a09&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Spinzonner]

1. The history of the shuttle program is one of death by management

Management decisions have caused the deaths of two crews.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. It sounds, tragically, like you're right, Spinzonner. nt