FOX SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRIT HUME (18:00) February 3, 2003
Columbia Shuttle Disaster Investigation Begins; NASA Analyses Their Role
Brit Hume, Brian Wilson, Rick Leventhal
BRIT HUME, HOST: Next on SPECIAL REPORT, the president says America's journey into space will go on and his budget contains an increase for NASA. But critics say the Columbia disaster was a case of getting what you pay for.
And Democrats attack the president's budget for his combination of tax cuts, defense increases and large projected deficits. Tony Blair, meanwhile, on the eve of a meeting with France's Chirac, says there can be no backing down on Iraq and Colin Powell says the U.S., quote, "will not shrink from war." First though, the other headlines from New York.
(NEWSBREAK)
HUME: Welcome to Washington, I'm Brit Hume.
If you listen carefully in Washington today, you could sense that the grief and unity phase of the Columbia disaster aftermath was ending, and the blame and recrimination phase was starting. This as families of the seven astronauts lost on the space shuttle Columbia urged NASA and the nation today not to give up on manned space flight in the wake of the weekend's disaster. And President Bush echoed those sentiments, insisting that America's journey into space will go on.
Fox News correspondent Brian Wilson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN WILSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The shuttle accident was high on the president's agenda this morning. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe summoned to the Oval Office to update the president. Mr. Bush praised the work of NASA employees and asked O'Keefe to pass on the message "you make us proud." Later, the president spoke again of the Columbia tragedy.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: While we grieve the loss of these astronauts, the cause of which they died will continue. America's journey into space will go on.
WILSON: Elsewhere in Washington, the question is being asked, did money problems at NASA cause the agency to cut back on safety programs? The president's budget director says not on his watch.
MITCH DANIELS, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: This administration has increased funding for NASA, increased funding for the shuttle and increased funding for the shuttle maintenance account.
WILSON: In fact, in the just revealed 2004 budget, NASA is scheduled for a $469 million budget increase. Still over the years, government watchdogs have been raising red flags about tight budgets and safety. In September 2001, a NASA advisory panel wrote, "the current and proposed budgets are not sufficient to improve or even maintain the safety risk level of operating the space shuttle." Seven months later in congressional testimony, the outgoing chairman of the panel predicted, "the repeated postponement of safety upgrades, the delay in restoring aging infrastructure will inevitably increase the risk of operating the space shuttle.
The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress has been reporting since January of 2001 that, "NASA's shuttle workforce had declined significantly in recent years to the point of reducing NASA's ability to safely support the shuttle program." And a report released just last week, the GAO added these challenges have not been mitigated. Since the accident, NASA officials have been adamant.
MICHAEL C. KOSTELNIK, INT'L SPACE STATION & SHUTTLE: The issue of safety and NASA has always been number one.
WILSON: But some outside observers see it differently.
JOHN PIKE, DIRECTOR, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: If you're not prepared to spend what it takes, you'll windup with accidents like this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILSON: NASA's budget took its biggest hits during the Clinton year, dropping nearly $1 billion between 1994 and the year 2000. The Bush administration put some of that money back in, but even today, NASA's total budget amounts to only 0.7 percent of the total federal budget.
In Washington, Brian Wilson, Fox News.
HUME: In the meantime, a mishap during takeoff is emerging as a leading theory as to the cause of the space shuttle Columbia's catastrophic disintegration on Saturday.
For the latest on how that investigation is now going, Fox News correspondent Rick Leventhal joins us live from NASA's Mission Control in Houston -- Rick.
RICK LEVENTHAL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And Brit, NASA officials just finish a lengthy press briefing at which they said they're now closely examining their own actions during the space shuttle Columbia's mission. Did they make bad launchings? Were they not conservative enough? Did they simply make mistakes?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEVENTHAL (voice-over): Certainly the focus now is clearly on the insulation tiles that were apparently damaged during liftoff back on January 16. Frame by frame analysis shows a piece of foam insulation patch broke off an external fuel tank 80 seconds after launch and struck the left wing. Today NASA revealed that they're estimating that chunk weighed 2.67 pounds and measured 20 by 16 by 6 inches in diameter.
Engineers spent days analyzing the potential damage from the striking of that insulation. They held meetings on it and prepared reports. They decided it did not represent a safety threat to the crew or the vehicle. But Saturday morning when the shuttle reentered earth's atmosphere, that left side began heating up. Gauges and wiring, temperatures rose abnormally in the left wheel well and left side of the fuselage. Contact with the crew was lost and the shuttle disintegrated. The big question is did NASA make a deadly miscalculation?
RON DITTEMORE, NASA SPOKESMAN: No one is going to impact the wing and come off. It is not going to hit directly 90 degrees. So, AS it comes into the wing, you have to calculate how much energy it has depending on the mass and the size. So, that is very important us to.
LEVENTHAL: Well, the collection of shuttle debris continues and NASA says it is most interested in debris from that primary impact area on the underside of the shuttle craft. Specifically, they're looking for six by six inches pieces of the foam from that left wing. NASA says it is like looking for a needle in a haystack with thousands of pieces of wreckage spread across hundreds of miles in at least two states. But that search obviously continues at a rapid pace.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEVANTHAL: And no briefing scheduled here tomorrow, Brit. Instead, NASA will pause to reflect on the lives, the contributions, and the sacrifices of the Columbia crew. Of course, there will be a memorial service here. It is a day of remembering and mourning, a day -- ceremony that will be attended by President Bush -- Brit.
HUME: Rick, thanks very much.
President Bush will, as Rick noted, attend that memorial service of the Columbia astronauts at the Johnson Space Center tomorrow in Houston. Fox News Channel live coverage will begin at 1:00 P.M. Eastern time.
Coming up next, Prime Minister Blair and President Bush pick up right where they left off last week, warning Saddam. And we'll have the latest on all that next.
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