Everything's Not A-ok

September 3, 1987|By Gold

As a way to juice up flagging confidence in the U.S. shuttle program, Sunday's test-firing of the rocket booster in Utah failed.

It didn't provide what NASA so desperately needs: convincing evidence that it has the shuttle program securely on track again. Without that evidence, continued funding for such NASA projects as the space station remains vulnerable to its critics. And the future of the entire civilian space program remains uncertain.

Sure, officials from NASA and Morton Thiokol Inc., the rocket's manufacturer, say the test of the shuttle booster rocket was an apparent success. The redesigned rocket seemed to work without a major hitch, evoking an audible sigh of relief among observers that the worst -- another explosion -- didn't happen.

Any serious problem during the test not only would have killed chances for a shuttle flight next June, but would have sent the booster rocket back to the drawing board. The nation's civilian space program would have lost several more years.

But solving the problem of the rubber O rings -- whose failure led to the Challenger shuttle explosion 19 months ago -- won't alone recapture the hearts and

minds of the American public. What they saw was not reassuring.

The test had been planned for Thursday, but was postponed after a series of problems with testing equipment. On the same day, another solid-fuel rocket being tested in Alabama by Morton Thiokol also failed.

Even Sunday's test had hitches. Thirty-five of 500 sensors attached to the rocket failed. And a water-deluge system, which caused postponement Thursday, didn't work right three days later.

So what's going on?

Officials at Morton Thiokol, which manufactured the boosters whose failure ended up killing seven astronauts, had the eyes of millions of people burning into the backs of their heads while conducting the rocket test. But they didn't anticipate some preventable problems.

If the reason is carelessness, then tighten up. If it is excessive complexity, then simplify. But in future tests, NASA has to get it right to assure the public that American technology again can be depended on to get the shuttle off the ground.

If it can't do that, then the space program may not get off the ground for a long time to come.

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