The Mammoth Book of Space Exploration and Disasters

The flight rate was not reduced to accommodate periods of adjustment in the capacity of the work force. There was no margin in the system to accommodate unforeseen hardware problems.

Resources were primarily directed toward supporting the flights and thus not enough were available to improve and expand facilities needed to support a higher flight rate.

5. Training simulators may be the limiting factor on the flight rate: the two current simulators cannot train crews for more than 12–15 flights per year.

6. When flights come in rapid succession, current requirements do not ensure that critical anomalies occurring during one flight are identified and addressed appropriately before the next flight.

The Commission noted that engine testing had been reduced:

The Space Shuttle Main Engine teams at Marshall and Rocketdyne have developed engines that have achieved their performance goals and have performed extremely well. Nevertheless the main engines continue to be highly complex and critical components of the Shuttle that involve an element of risk principally because important components of the engines degrade more rapidly with flight use than anticipated. Both NASA and Rocketdyne have taken steps to contain that risk. An important aspect of the main engine program has been the extensive “hot fire” ground tests. Unfortunately, the vitality of the test program has been reduced because of budgetary constraints.

The number of engine test firings per month has decreased over the past two years. Yet this test program has not yet demonstrated the limits of engine operation parameters or included tests over the full operating envelope to show full engine capability. In addition, tests have not yet been deliberately conducted to the point of failure to determine actual engine operating margins.

The members of the Commission included former astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride, and the former test pilot, General Charles Yeager, as well as scientists and lawyers.

Mir: introduction

The last and biggest of the Soviet space stations was Mir (Mir means “Peace”).

Mir was launched by Proton booster on 20 February 1986. The first module was the base unit which contained the command centre and the living quarters. The Kvant astrophysics laboratory was added in 1987, while another module, Kvant 2, was added in November 1989; Kvant 2 included a new toilet and shower. The Kristall module followed six months later.

On 21 December 1987 the Soviet cosmonauts, Colonel Vladimir Titov and Muso Manarov, began a record endurance flight of 366 days aboard Mir and their Soyuz TM-4. At that time the space station only consisted of the base unit and the Kvant astrophysics module. The two cosmonauts returned on 21 December 1988.

When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 Russia inherited most of the Soviet Space program, parts of which were located in other states of the former Soviet Union – for example, the automatic docking system was made in the Ukraine. Having to buy or lease facilities and equipment added to the financial difficulties of supporting their space program.

They had to cancel many projects, including their own version of the space shuttle, the “Buran” and their fleet of communications vessels was laid up. Consequently they could not maintain continuous communications with their space stations.