WORLD NEWS THIS MORNING - ABC February 10, 2003
COLUMBIA INVESTIGATION SOME EXPERTS BLAMING LACK OF FUNDING
LIZ CHO, ABC NEWS
(Off Camera) Searchers scouring the woods of Texas for pieces of the space shuttle Columbia have found a charred hatch door. As investigators collect more debris, some experts are blaming the disaster on a lack of funding. ABC's Jeffrey Kofman has that story. graphics: Columbia Investigation
JEFFREY KOFMAN, ABC NEWS
(Voice Over) Was Columbia doomed on takeoff by that piece of insulation foam that hit the wing, in flight by space junk or a meteorite, or on re- entry by the failure of its heat-shielding tiles, or was Columbia doomed long before its launch because of budget cuts?
JOHN PIKE, ABC NEWS CONSULTANT
I think there's every reason to anticipate that when we learn the source of the loss of the Columbia, that the loss of Columbia will ultimately be traced to just not enough money.
JEFFREY KOFMAN
(Off Camera) Back in the 1960's when Saturn Five rockets like this helped put man on the moon, NASA got almost four percent of the Federal budget. Today it gets less than one percent.
JEFFREY KOFMAN (CONTINUED)
(Voice Over) Faced with squeezed budgets, NASA's new motto has become faster, better, cheaper. In the mid-1990's the agency turned over much of the work on the shuttle to private contractors. The head of the biggest NASA contractor has warned Congress about the threat of constant cuts but he told ABC News his company has never compromised safety.
MICHAEL MCCULLEY, COO UNITED SPACE CENTER
No, absolutely not. I worry about the budget because I worry about human space flight for years and years to come. I don't worry about the budget because of a space flight that's coming up next month.
JEFFREY KOFMAN
(Voice Over) So far there has been no evidence that budget cuts had anything to do with Columbia's breakup over Texas eight days ago, but as the US contemplates its return to space after another shuttle disaster, the politicians will be forced to answer the same question again, at what price and what cost? Jeffrey Kofman, ABC News, Houston.
Copyright © 2003, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
