Boeing Move to Texas Hurt Shuttle Analysis-Report

Reuters ^ | Thursday July 31, 2:41 pm ET | Deborah Zabarenko

[anymouse]

"Brain drain" at Boeing Co. may have contributed to the aerospace giant's flawed analysis that space shuttle Columbia would land safely despite being damaged soon after launch, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.

Falling debris from Columbia's external fuel tank crashed into the shuttle's left wing, allowing superheated gas to penetrate the craft on re-entry Feb. 1, ultimately tearing the ship apart and killing all seven astronauts aboard.

Boeing's space shuttle team lost many top engineers when it moved to Texas from California in 2001, contributing to poor analysis during the doomed Columbia flight, according to the Times report.

Investigators will likely cite "brain drain" as part of Boeing's conclusion that the shuttle would land safely despite being damaged shortly after launch, the newspaper reported, citing sources familiar with an ongoing review.

A spokeswoman for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board had no immediate comment on the Times story. The board's final report is expected later this month.

Chicago-based Boeing, a major NASA contractor which also runs the world's largest commercial jet business and the No. 2 U.S. military contractor, said the move to Texas had no impact on the quality of its analysis.

"It is true there were a fairly high number of engineers that left (the program), but they didn't leave the company. If we needed them, we could get them and that certainly had no impact on the analysis," Boeing spokesman Ed Memi told Reuters.

Some 80 percent of the 500 Boeing technical engineers in Huntington Beach, California, declined to move to Houston with the NASA program, requiring Boeing to hire and train engineers locally that lacked the experience of the existing team, the Times reported.

The Boeing team's assessment that Columbia was relatively intact helped NASA leaders decide to continue with normal landing procedures.

According to the Times, Boeing engineers in Huntington Beach have said they would have reached a different conclusion, which Boeing denied.

"The Huntington Beach engineers were part of the analysis, so it would be hard to come up with a different conclusion," Memi said. "If there were engineers at Huntington Beach not involved in the analysis who felt otherwise, they never made their concerns known."

[ALOHA RONNIE]

The 1st Thing CLINTON did for Space was to kill America's Space Station Program in favor of the now Joint Russia-American Program called Space Station 'ALPHA'..!!

America's Space Station was to be called The 'FREEDOM' Space Station.

Yes, BILL CLINTON made sure that...

...there would be no 'FREEDOM' in Space.

[bonesmccoy]

yup... all the guys I know called the changes to space station "RALPHA" for Russian-Alpha.

Also, "ralpha" as in "barf".

[ALOHA RONNIE]

...Thanks, bones, I needed that.

[XBob]

20 - I and my brother (who worked for NASA at the time (in the 70's) when NASA was prohibitied by congress from building the shuttle they wanted, and was forced to make a 'cheaper' shuttle. To get it through congress, they designed it so that it was to be built in 75 different congressional districts (bringing jobs to each of the districts). The whole program became a 'jobs' program.

He and I were there in the 80's when they tried to 'privatize' space at Cape Canaveral (not Kennedy Space Center), and all the experienced people were 'jobs program' people, who had no idea about 'commercial feasibility' and saving money - their main goals were to spend money. And they just couldn't bring themselves to even understand the concept. This was the 'missed' opportunity.

Xlinton just sent the technology and work to his fellow communist buddies in China and Russia. So, the opportunity, which was, is gone, and has been for some time now. We can only hope NASA accidentally discovers gold on Mars or something.

[snopercod]

I think I already related how I saved the taxpayers $250,000 per year by re-flowing a major integrated shuttle test. I tightened it up so that instead of 48 hours long, it could be performed in 32 hours. Hundreds of people had to be on-station for the entire test.

When my management found out, they took the test away from me and put it back like it was before.

That one incident was what made me decide to leave. There were other reasons of course, but that pushed me over the brink.

[anymouse]

Well we new all was lost when "Freedom" died and the Russians became our "partners."

[bonesmccoy]

"Well we new all was lost when "Freedom" died and the Russians became our "partners.""

That is a rather profound statement of fact!

I suppose we can point to the fact that Reagan designed Freedom.

Clinton-Gore designed ralph.

[bonesmccoy]

You're welcome Ronnie... nothing like little Ralpha bits in the morning.