The loss of the shuttle Columbia has thrown the future of manned space flight into
question as the world, waits to discover whether the US will scale back its efforts
or renew its commitment to space exploration.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration yesterday said Harold W. Gehman,
a retired admiral who was also the lead investigator into the 2000 attack on the USS Cole,
would head the inquiry into Saturday's disaster in the skies above Texas, which killed
six US astronauts and an Israeli.
Mr Gehman was despatched to Shreveport, Louisiana, to begin the investigation.
Sean O'Keefe, Nasa administrator, said as well as Mr Gehman's independent team,
the agency had established an internal group to gather evidence, including securing
debris from the shuttle that was spread across several southern states.
Mr O'Keefe refused to be drawn on causes of the crash during television interviews.
"There is just no indication at this juncture of any predominant theory," he said on ABC.
Speculation has focused on insulating foam that came off an external fuel tank during
Columbia's launch and hit a wing, as a possible cause of the accident.
With the remaining three shuttles now grounded, a key supplier to Russia's space
programme offered to step in to maintain deliveries to the International Space Station,
where three astronauts are on board.
Valery Ryumin, deputy-general constructor at the Energiya construction group,
said Russia could take on responsibility for future deliveries with its Proton rockets
if it received additional funding.
The Russian space agency believes it can make up for the absence of shuttle flights
to the ISS if the US overrides political and legal obstacles to greater co-operation with
Moscow.
The move would mark an important symbolic boost in co-operation between the
two countries at a time of growing friendship with Washington in the wake of
Moscow's participation in the international coalition against terrorism since 2001.
Saturday's accident presents the first serious test of the decision by Nasa in the
mid-1990s in effect to privatise space shuttle operations by handing, over day-to-day
management to Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The aerospace companies established a joint venture - United Space Alliance - under
a contract worth some $12bn over 10 years.
The first political reaction to the accident suggested President Bush will have
widespread support if he decides to expand the manned space programme and
start serious development of a safer successor to the shuttle.
"We can't step back," Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas told Fox television.
"We wouldn't be the greatest country on earth if we did.
This is the time to say we are not going to continue cutting [Nasa's] budget."
Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, a former astronaut, agreed: "We've got to fulfil our
destiny as a character of people as explorers and adventurers and go to Mars."
 |
Last update: ©2000 Ygrek. Contact |
||||||||