NASA Chief Visits Rocketdyne
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin gave qualified praise Thursday to Rocketdyne, the Canoga Park-based aerospace firm that was plagued last year by a series of problems with its space shuttle engines.
After a 90-minute tour of Rocketdyne’s sprawling main factory, Goldin said the company has made some progress in correcting quality control problems that caused two shuttle launches to be aborted seconds before liftoff and two other scheduled flights to be postponed, much to NASA’s chagrin.
“The quality slipped up a bit, and we let them know that in no uncertain terms,” said Goldin, standing amid a gaggle of Rocketdyne executives that included Paul B. Smith, the firm’s president.
“To their credit, they have stepped up. We’re getting there. . . . But they have some more work to do,” he said.
With 5,800 workers, Rocketdyne, a division of Seal Beach-based Rockwell International Corp., is the San Fernando Valley’s largest aerospace employer. Rocketdyne also makes solar-based power systems for the space station, engines for rockets that launch commercial and military satellites, and other aerospace devices. NASA pays Rocketdyne about $350 million annually for shuttle work.
Last March, a valve in one of the shuttle Columbia’s engines failed to close, forcing mission controllers to abort its launch only three seconds before liftoff--a dangerous procedure due to huge amounts of burning fuel. In August, a faulty fuel sensor in the shuttle Discovery’s engine caused NASA to scrub the mission only seconds before takeoff.
In June, NASA had to postpone for two weeks the launch of the shuttle Endeavour because Rocketdyne failed to properly document that an engine pump was space-worthy. In February, NASA discovered a part missing in an engine turbine, a problem that could prove catastrophic if the shuttle lost thrust while in flight.
Such lapses prompted Goldin last spring to dispatch a dozen engineers and quality experts on an extraordinary, monthlong inspection of Rocketdyne and its shuttle work. Each scrubbed launch costs NASA from $600,000 to $1 million.
The inspectors concluded that there were discrepancies between NASA’s designs and specifications and Rocketdyne’s blueprints, and that in some cases Rocketdyne technicians were not following procedures dictated by their own manuals.
The problems badly shook the firm, which has built shuttle engines for 20 years and had few problems until last year. They were especially damaging to Rocketdyne’s image because they came at a time when the Clinton Administration was proposing major funding cutbacks in NASA programs, including the space station.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Goldin said part of the problem was that there was not enough accountability by executives overseeing the shuttle engines. Then he pointed at Smith, saying: “He’s in charge of that engine . . . If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, he’s accountable.”
During his tour of the plant, Goldin alternately joked with and cheerfully chided several Rocketdyne engineers who resorted to acronyms and exotic terminology in an attempt to explain complicated engine components.
“I’ve been in 44 states and one of my concerns is that you don’t speak to the average American,” he told one engineer. “Speak English!”
Goldin was invited to Canoga Park and accompanied on his tour by Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), who has supported the shuttle program but opposed the space station in Congress, despite the presence of most of Rocketdyne’s facilities in his district.
Goldin insisted that NASA was not contemplating any funding cutbacks on the shuttle program and said that the United States is in danger of losing its worldwide lead in aerospace technology if Congress continues to reduce space-related expenditures.
Following the tour, Beilenson said he was impressed with the work at Rocketdyne but had not changed his mind about the space station.
