Feb 2 2003
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(New page: Progress M-47 launched atop a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome one day after the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia “threw future missions to the orbiting complex in doubt...)
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Progress M-47 launched atop a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome one day after the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia “threw future missions to the orbiting complex in doubt.” The launch, scheduled long in advance, took place as “stunned Russian space officials offered condolences to their American colleagues.” Russian officials also expressed concern that the loss of Columbia and the ensuing suspension of Shuttle missions might place Russia's “cash-strapped space program under more pressure to deliver crews and supplies to the station.” Sergei Gorbunov, a spokesperson for the Russian Space Agency, explained that Russia had no reserve of Soyuz spacecraft. He pointed out that if the U.S. space program intended to use Russian craft to transport crews to the ISS, NASA would need to buy Russian Soyuz TMAs, the type of craft designed to carry cosmonauts to the ISS. Russia had routinely built only two Soyuz spacecraft per year. (Associated Press, “Russians Send Supply Ship on Way to Space Station,” 2 February 2003.
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe announced the members of the Space Shuttle Mishap Interagency Investigation Board, also known as the Gehman Board. To chair the Board, NASA had appointed retired U.S. Navy Admiral Harold W. Gehman Jr., who had cochaired the independent commission that investigated the attack on the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, on 12 October 2000. Other members included Rear Admiral Stephen A. Turcotte of the U.S. Naval Safety Center; Major General John L. Barry of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio; Major General Kenneth W. Hess of Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico; James N. Hallock of the U.S. Department of Transportation; Steven B. Wallace of the FAA; and Brigadier General Duane W. Deal of the 21st Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. Several senior-level NASA leaders were also named to the panel: G. Scott Hubbard, Director of NASA's ARC; Bryan D. O'Connor, NASA's Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance and a former astronaut; and Theron M. Bradley Jr., NASA's Chief Engineer. NASA intended the Gehman Board to make a parallel investigation, complementing NASA's own internal investigation. The Board would have access to the same scientific information and to the cooperation of the same agencies as NASA. (NASA, “NASA Announces Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board (The Gehman Board),” news release 03-034, ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2003/03-034.txt (accessed 15 July 2008); David Arnold, “Specialist Panel Convenes, Begins Search for Cause,” Boston Globe, 4 February 2003.
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