Archive - Mar 2003
March 1st
ISS Status Report #03-9
Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC
Approaching their 100th day in orbit, the International Space Station’s Expedition 6 crewmembers completed an important test of on-orbit spacewalk preparation this week, while program managers cleared the way for a crew rotation scenario that will bring the three-man crew back to Earth in Kazakhstan in May.
NASA Mishap Response Status Report #10
Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC
About 13 minutes of video recorded by Columbia's crew Feb. 1 as they prepared for landing was released today on NASA television. The video recorded on the flight deck was taken with a small camera mounted first to the right of Pilot Willie McCool and later held by Mission Specialist Laurel Clark.
Shuttle Investigation Gathers Pace
Evidence continues to accumulate that NASA's engineers become alarmingly sloppy about the possible danger posed by detached fragments of the external tank's insulation hitting the Shuttle's tiles -- in the same way that they got sloppy about the threat posed by O-ring erosion due to cold weather before Challenger.
Full 2 page story at SpaceDaily.com
O'Keefe rejects idea nothing could be be done
Submitted by Arthur N1ORC
NASA's top administrator, Sean O'Keefe, said today he "completely rejects the proposition" that nothing could have been done in orbit to help Columbia if engineers had known the space shuttle was in trouble.
Soyuz Will Bring Crew Home in May
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe told a Congressional hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill that the three Expedition Six crewmembers, who were originally scheduled to return home in March aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-114 mission, will now return to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-1 craft in early May.