Highly Skilled, Dedicated Workforce Ensures Shuttle Flying Better Than Ever

When Space Shuttle Discovery touched down following its STS-131 mission to the International Space Station, it marked the completion of another highly successful flight with few problems to hinder the crew’s work. The trend of fewer preflight and mission anomalies has continued over the past five years.

An examination of documented problems shows the Shuttle is now flying safer and better than ever.

From the STS-114 flight of Discovery in 2005 to STS-131, Discovery’s most recent mission, Interim Problem Reports (IPRs) have been reduced by 90.3 percent. Additionally, In-Flight Anomalies (IFAs) during that same period are down approximately 91 percent.

“It is a testament to the Shuttle team’s professionalism and dedication,” said Howard DeCastro, USA Vice President and Shuttle Program Manager. “It goes back to attention to detail by a workforce that cares so much about flying safely.”

“By practicing preventive maintenance, we usually identify problems before they develop,” said Mark Nappi, USA Vice President of Launch and Recovery Systems. “It’s the experience of the workforce paying off.

“Engineers, technicians, inspectors, everyone now has a more keen awareness of how the hardware performs, and we stay ahead of issues before they have a chance to come up,” he said.

IPRs are concerns that come up with flight hardware during between-mission processing. The reports are carefully tracked to ensure closure, and, where applicable, engineers check to see if a problem with one vehicle might also be present in another.

IFAs are problems that occur and are noted during flight. These can run the spectrum from a problem with a simple switch to the failure of the Ku-band antenna to deploy as occurred during STS-131.

“When issues such as the Ku-band antenna failure do come up, our people develop ways to overcome these challenges by applying contingency procedures they have already been trained to utilize or by applying innovative real-time solutions,” said Scott Hartwig, USA Associate Program Manager, Flight Operations.

Nappi points out that when anomalies happen, USA’s experts are not satisfied to just fix the problem. They dig deeper to see how it applies to collective lessons learned on similar hardware on other vehicles.

“They look at how one seemingly unrelated problem compares to another,” he said.

“Of course, safety is our number one goal for the crews, our people and the vehicle,” Hartwig said. “Finding systemic problems (across the fleet) and resolving these issues increases the robustness of the whole system, thus making it safer on future Shuttle missions.”

Much has been learned over 29 years with the program benefitting from advances in analysis and testing. This has also provided a significant knowledge base making the Shuttle safer, Nappi said.

“Our inspections and testing now have us on top of the learning curve,” he said. “In the beginning, there were problems and failures we didn’t expect. As we learned more, we developed ways to avoid future problems.”

Analysis also provides confidence that the Shuttle is ready to fly.

“Testing helps us overcome some hardware issues and anomalies,” Hartwig said. “Testing confirms that our confidence is based on a firm foundation of confirmed data.

“The (Shuttle) Program also focuses on ensuring that we launch when we are ready and not to a schedule,” he said.

While much has been reported about the ongoing discussions of NASA’s future direction and potential force reductions associated with the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program, those responsible for how it flies have been praised for remaining focused.

“The passion of our workforce is like no other,” said Nappi. “They believe strongly in what they are doing. They treat the hardware like it is their own.”

Another significant dynamic is that although many have had the opportunity to leave, the overwhelming majority has decided to remain on the job.

“They want to stay with the program and make sure we safely complete the Shuttle’s manifest,” Nappi said. “That attention to detail has resulted in fewer safety mishaps among our employees, fewer problems with the flight hardware and the ground equipment.”

Flight safety and mission success is always the goal of a dedicated workforce.

“They profoundly want to take good care of our astronauts and help them do their jobs in flight,” DeCastro said. “We do that by learning from each mission. And, to maintain safety, we must continue to put engineering rigor in the system until ‘wheels stop’ on the final mission.”

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