Bill Nelson, U.S. Senator from Florida: Published Column: Are Challenger's lessons fading?

Following the Challenger tragedy in 1986, the United States recommitted itself to making manned space flight as safe as possible. And that sense of commitment defined our space program for many of the past 14 years. But today - under increasing budget constraints and pressure from both the previous and current administrations - the harsh lessons of Challenger seem to be fading.

In the months following that national tragedy, extensive analysis and risk assessment laid the foundation for numerous improvements to the space shuttle system. Our nation made the investment - and, it paid off.

Since NASA's return to flight, the shuttle has proven to be the safest and most reliable space vehicle in history. Many safety upgrades kept the system viable and ready to meet some of the future needs of our space program. The fact is that no other space vehicle has come close to matching the shuttle's accomplishments and its performance record.

Recognizing this, the White House, Congress, NASA and multiple outside advisory committees renewed our post-Challenger commitment two years ago by adopting a plan to keep the shuttle flying safely for the next decade. Additional safety upgrades and ground improvements were identified - some already undertaken - to further reduce the probability of a catastrophic failure.

Unfortunately, it now seems, these additional commitments to upgrade the shuttle are being abandoned. What were critical safety improvements two years ago now are discretionary projects subject to available funding. In light of other budget constraints within the agency, all but one of the shuttle's pending safety upgrades have been targeted for cancellation or what NASA calls "deferral."

It is true that NASA is facing cost overruns for the International Space Station. And these overruns are greatly disturbing, suggesting a problem with management of that program. But the most devastating thing about them is the impact they're having on the rest of NASA's mission. In order to fund the space station, including the overruns, the administration has canceled shuttle safety upgrades, and not provided any money for overdue improvements to shuttle ground support such as operations and maintenance buildings.

At the same time, NASA is initiating full-scale development of a second-generation launch vehicle - a program that will cost more than $4.5 billion over the next five years.

The administration asserts that this initiative will produce the technologies needed to support a next-generation reusable launch vehicle in time to retire the shuttle without having to invest in further safety improvements. Yet it may be four years before NASA makes a decision - or, four years of delayed shuttle improvements.

While it's entirely reasonable for NASA to plan for a vehicle-of-the-future to allow us to continue manned space exploration, it's unacceptable to gloss over our obligation to safely maintain the shuttle fleet. After all, we're scheduled to fly 24 missions over the next four years.

Given NASA's plans to extend the use of the shuttle to 2012 or beyond, we must do more - not less - to reduce the probability of a catastrophic failure to well below the current 1-in-483 odds. Otherwise, we may not continue to beat the odds.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is a member of the Commerce subcommittee on s science, technology and space, and flew on the shuttle Columbia in January 1986 when he was chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology space subcommittee.

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