ASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — In the first Congressional
hearing since the release of the independent report into the loss of the
space shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts, NASA's administrator came
under hard questioning today from senators who criticized the agency for
not holding specific people accountable for the disaster.
Lawmakers also pressed the administrator, Sean O'Keefe, on how soon the
agency could carry out the report's recommendations to become more
safety-conscious.
Mr. O'Keefe said the agency had begun to transform its safety culture,
which the report had called "broken," and added that evidence of
fundamental change should emerge in six months to a year.
But he conceded that deep down, lasting reform would take time. "This
is going to be a long, long haul," he said.
Senator Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina, the senior Democrat on
the panel, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation,
praised the report for finding the cause of the accident and recommending
sweeeping changes within the space agency. But he criticized the
investigators and NASA for not fixing the blame for the accident.
Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., who led the investigation panel, said the
committee did believe in accountability, but decided that naming
individuals who made mistakes was not its job. NASA's current difficulties
in ensuring safety and following procedures go back many years, Admiral
Gehman said, and are bigger than any individual. The report provided
enough detail, he added, for other authorities to fix blame if they
wished.
Mr. Hollings noted that the report paid much attention to problems with
NASA's "culture" of doing things, which including flawed decision making,
incomplete safety procedures and poor communications. "I'm trying to break
through this `culture' finding and fix responsibility," Mr. Hollings
said.
"As an admiral," he told Admiral Gehman, "you would immediately find
responsibility, and whoever was captain of that ship would be cashiered. I
don't find that in the report, the fixing of responsibility."
Mr. O'Keefe said that as head of the space agency, he was ultimately
accountable. But Admiral Gehman defended Mr. O'Keefe, noting that the
systemic problems that led to the disaster began a few years after the
shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, when vigilance stemming from that
accident began to wane.
"It didn't happen under his watch," Admiral Gehman, who is retired,
said of Mr. O'Keefe, who had been NASA administrator for only a year
before the accident.
Mr. O'Keefe noted that most of the management of the space shuttle
program had been replaced since the accident, but he refused to publicly
judge the actions of individual managers involved in the ill-fated
flight.
"Does that mean that those who are replaced are accountable?" asked
Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is chairman of the
committee.
Mr. O'Keefe replied: "The folks who are in positions today will lead in
the future and be accountable for this activity. Those who are not there,
I think you can draw the conclusion from that."
Admiral Gehman said responsibility for conditions leading up to the
Columbia accident must be shared by all those responsible for space
policy, including NASA, the White House and Congress. NASA has been
starved for money for years, he said, and shuttle program managers were
forced to divert money from shuttle upgrade programs to do other things,
like supporting the International Space Station.
"Over a decade, the spending power of the NASA budget was reduced by
over 40 percent," Admiral Gehman said. The pressure of budgets grew to
influence how the management system worked throughout the agency, he
added.
The board's report noted that NASA did not have a clear vision for the
future of human spaceflight. Admiral Gehman said after the hearing that
there needed to be a public policy debate on the trade-offs between
sending humans into space and using robotic spacecraft.
"Now, NASA is operating without a clear, nationally accepted mandate,"
he said.
Admiral Gehman noted that his panel had determined that the shuttle
system was not inherently unsafe, but had concerns about its long-term
operation. The report said that the aging shuttle fleet should be phased
out and that NASA should develop a replacement vehicle.
During the hearing, Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, proposed
that within six months Mr. O'Keefe prepare a cost-benefit analysis on
human spaceflight to help guide policy decisions. "You cannot resolve the
question of NASA's mission without re-examining human spaceflight," Mr.
Wyden said.
Mr. O'Keefe called that "a very intriguing idea," saying, "I think
that's a very thoughtful way to go about approaching it, and I'll do my
very best to provide such a document," he said.
Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, said it was imperative
that this nation stay at the forefront of space exploration, but he asked
whether continuing the shuttle program was worth the risk and expense, as
opposed to developing a new manned craft. "Are we throwing good money
after bad?" he asked.
Mr. O'Keefe said a plan on how to return the remaining shuttles to
flight, expected to be released next Monday, would address these
questions. He asked that Mr. Brownback and others keep an open mind about
the program.
