Mar 17 2006
From The Space Library
NASA formed a five-member investigation board at NASA’s KSC in Florida, to review the 4 March 2006 incident during STS-121 in which Space Shuttle Discovery’s remote manipulator system (robotic Shuttle arm) sustained damage. The arm, a 50-foot-long, jointed extension, was used to grapple payloads and to remove them from the payload bay, and to move spacewalking astronauts to various work platforms. Hugo M. Delgado Jr., Deputy Director for the Office of the Chief Engineer at KSC, would chair the board, which would investigate the facts surrounding the incident, determine its probable cause, assess the possibility of a recurrence, and recommend corrective actions. The 4 March incident was one in a series of accidents that had occurred at KSC in 2006, prompting Director of KSC James W. Kennedy to order a brief shutdown of operations. At that time, Kennedy had warned KSC employees that a major accident could derail NASA’s plans to complete the ISS and to begin exploring the Moon and Mars.
NASA, “NASA Appoints Board To Investigate Shuttle Arm Incident,” news release 06-100, 17 March 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/mar/HQ_06100_Shuttle_arm_board.html (accessed 14 September 2009); New York Times, “Accident Involving Shuttles at Kennedy Space Center Prompt Safety Directive,” 18 March 2006.
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