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Friday, July 29, 2005
Shuttles
Recalled... Again
PSAYINGS.5Q.54. More problems for NASA. The Ford Motor Company has issued yet another recall for the 1976 Gran Torino model on which the original shuttle design was based. This time the problem is faulty outside mirrors, which have a tendency to fall off during hard acceleration. A company spokeperson expressed regret that an administrative delay prevented the recall notice from reaching NASA before the recent launch of Discovery, which shed both outside mirrors during liftoff.
Discovery's rearview mirror falling off during launch.
Houston immediately issued a statement:
NASA suspended further flights of the
space shuttle fleet on Wednesday...
The decision will not curtail [Discovery's] 12½-day mission to the International Space Station, the officials said. But further flights will be postponed indefinitely, starting with that of the Atlantis, which was to have lifted off as early as September.
"Until we fix this, we're not ready to go fly again," William W. Parsons, the manager of the shuttle program, said at a news briefing at the Johnson Space Center here on Wednesday evening.
The decision will not curtail [Discovery's] 12½-day mission to the International Space Station, the officials said. But further flights will be postponed indefinitely, starting with that of the Atlantis, which was to have lifted off as early as September.
"Until we fix this, we're not ready to go fly again," William W. Parsons, the manager of the shuttle program, said at a news briefing at the Johnson Space Center here on Wednesday evening.
As word of the recall spread, veteran reporters of the shuttle program pressed NASA officials about the viability of the 1970s era technology still being used in the orbiters. While much of NASA's internal maintenance information is held close to the vest, the record of the Ford Gran Torino is public and abundantly documented. The vehicle has been recalled a total of 158 times since 1976, for body problems such as door handles, radio antennas, bumper guards, bumpers, hubcaps and wheels that fall off spontaneously during normal driving. The fact is, the Torino was designed and manufactured when quality was still Job Two at Ford. Confronted by the list of faulty parts, a tight-lipped NASA spokesman observed that Discovery doesn't have hubcaps and referred reporters to a press release already on file about the reasons the Torino was selected as the basis for the shuttle fleet. The release reads in part:
A further source of embarrassment for
NASA is that the alternative model listed -- and blacked out -- in the
release is the Ford Fairmont, which featured even worse build quality
than the Gran Torino and was used as the basis for all the Mars landers
that disappeared shortly after reaching the planet.
Perhaps it's time for America's space jocks to consider implementing slightly newer technology.
Perhaps it's time for America's space jocks to consider implementing slightly newer technology.
