Maintenance of Facilities by NASA Hit

NASA’s poor maintenance practices have caused a fire in a mission control room, falling concrete in a space shuttle building and a steam line explosion, according to a government report issued today.

The General Accounting Office report says the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is working to correct shortcomings. Congress appropriated $141 million for maintenance in 1990, and more has been asked for future years.

The GAO recommends that the space agency develop a comprehensive maintenance strategy, spend more money on upkeep and do annual surveys to determine which centers most need repairs.

The Associated Press, in a report on NASA’s crumbling facilities three months ago, called the situation “a handyman’s nightmare.” The story cited the leaky roof on the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, the second-largest building in the world in terms of volume. Rain has splashed down on computers in the modernistic, adjoining launch control center.

Ventilation systems and heating boilers are so old that parts no longer are available, and NASA must make its own. Obsolete circuit breakers at Kennedy and Ames Research Centers in Mountain View, Calif., pose so much danger that power must be turned off before workers can test them.