Posted: Sat, Jun 14, 2003, 11:00 AM ET (1500 GMT)
A Florida television station reported Friday that the company that used to make bolts to attach the shuttle's solid rocket boosters to its external tank warned NASA and Congress about potential problems with a new company making the bolts. WESH-TV in Orlando acquired a copy of a letter sent to Congress by Hi-Shear Technology Corporation, the company that had made the bolts from the beginning of the shuttle program until 2000, when NASA selected a new contractor — not identified in the report — for the bolts. The letter, sent 11 months before the Columbia accident, warned that another "Challenger-type failure" was inevitable because the new bolts and boltcatchers — devices designed to keep bolt debris away from the shuttle after SRB separation — were "potentially faulty and guaranteed to cause disaster." The Columbia Accident Investigation Board revealed Thursday that the new boltcatchers did not appear to have been properly tested and did not have adequate safety margins. This could explain a piece of debris seen on radar in the vicinity of the shuttle at the time of SRB separation. Although the CAIB said it was unlikely this debris was linked to the shuttle accident itself, it said the problem was something NASA would have to correct before the shuttle returned to flight.

Related Links:

•  WESH-TV article