Tag Archives: Columbia Accident

After Ten Years: the Fateful FRR

Posted on December 29, 2012 by

George Abbey never allowed a shuttle flight to be scheduled over the last days of January.  He was too steeped in the events of the Apollo 1 fire and the STS-51-L loss of Challenger and her crew to put another … Continue reading →

Posted in After Ten Years | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

After Ten Years: STS-113, the Calm before the Storm

Posted on December 11, 2012 by

Of course the title is wrong; there was nothing calm about STS-113. I was the Ascent/Entry Flight Director as you can see in the picture of the mission control team. This ISS assembly and crew rotation flight was jam packed … Continue reading →

Posted in After Ten Years | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Ten Years After Columbia: STS-112, the Harbinger

Posted on December 3, 2012 by

“You will never remember the many times the launch slipped, but the on-time failures are with you always” – Walt W. Williams, NASA Program Manager for X-15 and Mercury In the summer of 2002, the word got out about the … Continue reading →

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After Ten Years: A Few Words from Admiral Gehman

Posted on November 12, 2012 by

I’d like to interrupt my personal recollections of the Columbia accident and its aftermath to give a few words from Admiral Gehman.  You might as well know that there are still people out there who will tell you the CAIB … Continue reading →

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After Ten Years: Flying A Mature Vehicle – Or Not

Posted on November 6, 2012 by

  “The Space Shuttle is an experimental vehicle with an operational mission” – NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Michael Kostelnik, 2004 The Space Shuttle system was under development for 13 years and then actually flew in space for over 30 years.  … Continue reading →

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Ten Years After Columbia: Pennywise and Pound Foolish

Posted on October 26, 2012 by

“Relentless budget reduction pressures necessitate more dramatic program actions” – Brewster Shaw, Space Shuttle Program Manager, December 1994 Polls show that the general populace rates the Internal Revenue Service as the most disliked agency in the US Federal government.  Among … Continue reading →

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After Ten Years: The Tyranny of Requirements

Posted on October 7, 2012 by

My good friend and colleague from the Flight Director’s office, Jeff Bantle, left the agency several years ago to head up Lockheed-Martin’s Presidential Helicopter project.  He now has a great presentation talk about how incrementally added requirements can sink a … Continue reading →

Posted in After Ten Years | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments