Inexperience hurt shuttle analysis, engineers say
The engineers at Boeing's plant in Huntington Beach, Calif., say they had done these analyses for 20 years. But this year, they were not asked to.
The reason, they say: Boeing transferred shuttle jobs to Houston in a consolidation that cost the company scores of its most experienced shuttle engineers in the past two years – including some of those who invented the methodology for debris damage and thermal analysis.
Of 1,300 jobs in Boeing's shuttle program nationwide, 500 were transferred last year from California, officials said. Only 100 people actually made the move; scores of veteran engineers left the company or stayed behind, doing other work, according to Boeing spokeswoman Kari Allen.
So as the clock was ticking toward Columbia's re-entry, Boeing managers relied on a Houston-based team of engineers who had never done this type of analysis in a real situation.
“This was their first flight,” said the Boeing thermal systems engineer. “This was the first time they took over.”
The whole incident nauseates me to no end.
I think I was in the 5th grade when they made the debut of Enterprise, the non-functional prototype of Columbia, which we saw land in the desert back circa 1977-78.
I did quite a bit of web browsing on Columbia, Challenger and the remaining shuttles. One of my first reactions to the Columbia’s demise was “Why are they still flying that old hunk of crap?” If memory serves me it was the oldest shuttle to actually make it to space and back. It’s so old, if it had a license plate you could actually get an “antique” plate.
Back when Challenger lit up, I happened to be in the flattest, most desolate part of Kansas and driving east. As I looked to the sky in front of me that morning driving east, I remarked to myself “Jeepers, what a scary damn cloud formation that is.” As the day would prove, Challenger was gone and I came back to my frat with 80+ huddled in front of a TV, watching wide eyed at the “disaster” which unfolded before us.
O-rings, tiles falling off, yak, yak yak. Hubble has a flawed lens. I just have to wonder wtf are they doing at NASA.