Shuttle Chief Briefed on Inquiry

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA’s new shuttle program director, vowing to make the space agency “a forthcoming, public institution,” arrived here Monday to be briefed on the agency’s internal investigation of the Challenger explosion.

Former astronaut Richard H. Truly, who replaced Jesse W. Moore last week as associate administrator for space flight, said that he is “keenly aware of the depth of public interest and concern about our efforts to understand and respond to the causes of the accident.”

Truly later met with senior National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials. During his visit he will also review flight data and salvaged debris from the Jan. 28 Challenger launch.

Earlier in the day, he met in Washington with members of the presidential commission investigating the explosion at the request of William P. Rogers, chairman of the panel.

Truly said he gave Rogers “my pledge that I was fully supportive of what they were doing--that we had the same objective, and that is to find out what happened in the accident so that NASA can take the initiative to fix it.”

Meanwhile, searchers on Monday added another 100 square miles to the 250-square-mile area off the coast of Florida where an armada of ships and submarines is scanning the ocean bottom for wreckage.