WASHINGTON - NASA's top official said yesterday that engineers' dire speculations while Columbia was in orbit were evaluated at the proper level, below top management, but that the space agency will review the decision-making process.
Speaking before the House Science Committee, Sean O'Keefe, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, vigorously defended the way NASA dealt with a flurry of e-mails among engineers about the possible destruction of Columbia during its return to Earth. He said experts considered the issues and decided the space shuttle would be safe.
O'Keefe also announced that because the Columbia accident led to the grounding of the space shuttle fleet, Russian spacecraft will be used to exchange crew members aboard the International Space Station.
A debate among engineers on the risks Columbia faced during its re-entry never reached top NASA officials, but O'Keefe said the space agency management system expects lower-level experts to evaluate risks and make decisions about mission operations.
"I certainly am not privy to every single one of those deliberations that go on across an agency of 18,000 people and another 100,000 folks who engage in launch operations and the continued activities of the agency," O'Keefe said in a heated exchange with Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, a New York Democrat.
Weiner, who apologized at one point for getting "hot under the collar," said it should be O'Keefe's "job No. 1" to keep up with discussions of space shuttle safety but that the administrator learned of the debate among the engineers only when NASA released the e-mails Wednesday.
"It looks like that dialogue went on at exactly the right level," responded O'Keefe. The way NASA handles such engineering decisions will be considered, among other issues, by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, he said.
Speaking before the House Science Committee, Sean O'Keefe, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, vigorously defended the way NASA dealt with a flurry of e-mails among engineers about the possible destruction of Columbia during its return to Earth. He said experts considered the issues and decided the space shuttle would be safe.
O'Keefe also announced that because the Columbia accident led to the grounding of the space shuttle fleet, Russian spacecraft will be used to exchange crew members aboard the International Space Station.
A debate among engineers on the risks Columbia faced during its re-entry never reached top NASA officials, but O'Keefe said the space agency management system expects lower-level experts to evaluate risks and make decisions about mission operations.
"I certainly am not privy to every single one of those deliberations that go on across an agency of 18,000 people and another 100,000 folks who engage in launch operations and the continued activities of the agency," O'Keefe said in a heated exchange with Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, a New York Democrat.
Weiner, who apologized at one point for getting "hot under the collar," said it should be O'Keefe's "job No. 1" to keep up with discussions of space shuttle safety but that the administrator learned of the debate among the engineers only when NASA released the e-mails Wednesday.
"It looks like that dialogue went on at exactly the right level," responded O'Keefe. The way NASA handles such engineering decisions will be considered, among other issues, by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, he said.
