Mike Leinbach, former space shuttle launch director, led NASA’s reconstruction efforts after the loss of Columbia. In this video, he shares how the agency worked to piece together the found debris to learn exactly what happened during the accident.
The NASA Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) organizations have both taken pride in the successes, and shared responsibility for the catastrophic failures during 30 years of Space Shuttle Program operations. Lessons learned during this time period were presented showing the evolution of safety culture, processes and products. The intent of this presentation was to impart a legacy of safety protocol that can guide future enterprises to pursue a course of action that emphasizes dedication to minimizing the risk of catastrophic failures.
In this Knowledge Byte, Paul Teehan — acting Chief Safety and Mission Assurance Officer, Multi-Program Science, Marshall Space Flight Center — discusses differing opinions on a design change for the space shuttle solid rocket boosters and how those opinions were ultimately reconciled.
White Sands Test Facility has been involved in Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) testing for about 20 years, and supported return-to-flight testing for Space Shuttle. Learn how White Sands worked to increase understanding of the reliability numbers for the shuttle’s COPVs.
Space shuttle Atlantis and its six-member crew began an 11-day delivery flight to the International Space Station on Monday with a 2:28 p.m. EST launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle will transport spare hardware to the outpost and return a station crew member who spent more than two months in space.
The complexity of the recovery operations for the Orion spacecraft created useful lessons on partnerships between two government agencies.
Capturing and transferring knowledge in a program is critical.
A project culture open to discussing tough questions can help with mission success.
High-level goals were established to allow flexibility and innovation in the design of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS).
