NASA ponders tile-repair on flights

By Ralph Vartabedian and Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times, 2/25/2003

OUSTON -- NASA will study whether it can give astronauts the ability to inspect and repair heat-resistant tiles on the space shuttle while in orbit, officials said yesterday, in one of the first moves the agency has made to address safety since the Columbia broke apart while reentering the earth's atmosphere.

Officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration insist they intend to fly shuttles again, though the space agency will have to assure the public that a replay of the Feb. 1 Columbia tragedy could not occur. If investigators determine that damaged tiles were at fault, then the study could provide NASA with a way to protect the craft in the future.

Even if another cause is identified in the Columbia tragedy, the investigation already has revealed so many weaknesses in the heat protection system that some changes are likely.

Though the study is just under way, it marks a significant shift in policy.

NASA was unable to inspect the Columbia for damage while it was in orbit, and the astronauts could not have repaired the craft anyway. With current technology, the crew and mission control officials in Houston merely accept damage to protective tiles as a routine risk of space travel.

In the early days of the shuttle program, NASA rejected the notion of equipping astronauts with the ability to make repairs because administrators did not think it was possible and did not want to acknowledge that they had anything less than absolute faith in the tiles. But those ceramic tiles -- more than 24,000 of which protect the shuttle from the intense heat of reentry -- are a focus of the investigation into the Columbia failure.

This story ran on page A6 of the Boston Globe on 2/25/2003.
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