Space station's safety must be addressed

http://www.floridatoday.com/news/spa...3editorial.htm

October 23, 2003
Space station's safety must be addressed
FLORIDA TODAY editorial

Astronauts are poised for launch to the International Space Station.
NASA managers are itching to go, but some agency experts vehemently
argue that safety problems on the outpost should keep the flight
grounded.

They're overruled, and the rocket lifts off anyway.

Incredible as it sounds in the wake of the shuttle Columbia
disaster, this happened before last Saturday's launch of a Soyuz rocket
from Russia carrying two astronauts and a cosmonaut on a crew-exchange
mission to the station.

It reinforces in dramatic fashion what we called for less than two
weeks ago -- an independent review of space station safety that, if
necessary, should shutter the outpost and keep it unoccupied until its
problems are solved.

Unless that happens, we increasingly fear a serious accident could
befall a station crew and endanger their lives.

The pre-launch Soyuz debate was reported Thursday in the Washington
Post, which cited NASA documents and interviews. The situation was this:

Two officials responsible for making sure the living environment on
the station is working properly refused to approve the crew's launch and
took the extraordinary step of signing of dissent that warned about the
"continued degredation" of station life-support systems.

They and others argued the station should be abandoned for now
because the grounding of the shuttle fleet is making it impossible to
repair some systems and replace others that are faulty or not working.

As a result, experts cannot properly assess the station's air
quality or water and radiation levels. Meanwhile, some NASA medical
officials say station astronauts have shown symptoms of headaches,
dizziness and an inability to think clearly.

NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe's response is that he did not
believe the new crew faces an immediate threat, but that conditions
could slowly deteriorate over the next six months to the point where the
crew would have to head home.

That doesn't satisfy us, and shouldn't satisfy an agency that had
seven astronauts die in February after strong concerns were dismissed
about the debris strike that felled Columbia.

What we see is the flawed NASA "culture" so harshly indicted by
Columbia investigators at work again by not erring on the side of
caution, but pushing ahead despite known -- and in the view of their own
experts -- unacceptable risks.

It also follows a warning issued by a former member of the Aerospace
Safety Advisory Panel that oversees NASA, who recently cited other
safety concerns, including the ability of NASA and Russian ground
controllers to properly manage the station's intricate operation.

A serious problem exists, and it must be forcefully addressed before
tragedy strikes again.