Manager of Shuttle Program to Quit

Ron Dittemore, manager of NASA’s space shuttle program, is expected to resign as early as this week and move to a job in private industry, a government source said Saturday.

Immediately after the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed Feb. 1, Dittemore took the lead role in explaining what the space agency knew before the disaster and whether it could have been prevented.

Dittemore said after Columbia broke apart, claiming the lives of the seven astronauts aboard, that he could not believe foam debris falling from the shuttle’s external tank shortly after liftoff Jan. 16 could have caused the tragedy.

But damage to the shuttle by the falling debris now represents the leading theory of what happened. Dittemore, 51, has not been publicly faulted for his role in the program or the Columbia mission by members of Congress, the space agency leadership or independent investigators. Nonetheless, his departure does not come as a complete surprise.

NASA’s management of the space program is a focus of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and recommendations for changes are likely by the middle of July, congressional sources said Saturday. In the past, changes in shuttle management policies and practices have been accompanied by a change of key personnel.

NASA is searching for a replacement for Dittemore, according to the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, which first disclosed Dittemore’s expected resignation in Saturday’s editions.

Dittemore, a NASA employee since 1977 and shuttle director since 1999, is expected to take a job in industry, the newspaper said.