Panel Seizes More Data From Boeing Analysis on Shuttle

NASA impounded more data Thursday from an engineering analysis, conducted by Boeing Co. during Columbia’s flight, that predicted the astronauts would return to Earth safely.

The panel investigating the accident seized documents, including detailed accounts of the tests Boeing engineers performed on the potential damage caused by foam insulation striking the space shuttle’s ceramic tiles during liftoff Jan 16.

Boeing submitted two engineering memos to NASA in late January, advising the space agency that foam insulation falling off the shuttle’s external tank would not prevent a safe return by the crew.

A top Boeing Co. executive defended the company’s “rigorous” work Thursday.

Boeing Vice President Mike Mott said in an interview that the company stands by the integrity of the analysis it conducted during Columbia’s 16-day, ill-fated mission.

NASA, concerned when a piece of material believed to be foam insulation fell from an external fuel tank and struck the shuttle during liftoff, asked Boeing, its prime contractor, to analyze the potential damage Jan. 20. Five Boeing engineers in Houston and California concluded Jan. 23 that the shuttle was not catastrophically damaged despite the potential for “significant” harm.

Nine days later, the shuttle broke apart as it reentered the atmosphere, killing its seven-member crew. The investigative panel members said earlier this week that they would like to know more about the Boeing analysis, and questioned whether the analysis represented a thorough review of the potential for danger.

“The analysis was rigorous and detailed,” said Mott, Boeing’s general manager for NASA systems. “There is nothing routine about sending people up in space. We take this very seriously.”

After the accident, Mott said, he directed his engineers to reexamine the data they used to form their original conclusions during the Columbia’s mission. The analysis, he said, given what they knew at the time, was correct. “We still believe what we believed then,” Mott said. “We believed that Columbia was going to come home safely. Obviously that didn’t happen.”

Officials are taking a hard look not just at the foam insulation but at the east New Orleans plant where the foam is applied to the external fuel tanks.

Investigators said this week that they fear the material that struck the shuttle’s left side wasn’t the light foam material but a denser, felt-like lining material that could have caused more damage. The investigative board, which has already visited the Lockheed Martin Michoud assembly plant once, is headed back next week. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe visited the plant Thursday.

NASA officials said helicopter search teams were en route to Caliente, Nev., near the Nevada-Utah border, where a piece of shuttle debris might have landed. If so, it would be the westernmost piece of debris discovered to date.

The piece first turned up on video images analyzed by NASA ballistics experts. The images were combined with air traffic control radar data provided by the National Transportation Safety Board, and investigators were able to determine approximately where the piece apparently landed.

So far, the westernmost piece of confirmed space shuttle debris has been discovered in Granbury, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth.