spacetoday.net: NASA: No ISS accident risk

Posted: Tue, Sep 30, 2003, 10:08 AM ET (1408 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

NASA space station managers said Monday that they don't believe that the International Space Station is facing the same level of safety concerns as the space shuttle. Program managers, speaking at a press conference Monday, made it clear that the ISS was not "an accident waiting to happen." That allegation had been leveled against the station last week by Arthur Zygielbaum, one of the members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel who resigned last week. Zygielbaum claimed that there were at least three occasions where miscommunications between Russians and Americans caused problems on the station. NASA station program manager William Gerstenmaier acknowledged that ground controllers have made some minor errors and that communications between Russian and American station controllers could be improved, but that the station was not at risk.