Anxiety Over Space Program Future

March 11, 2003 -- They are wounded — the engineers in Houston, the flight experts in Florida, the workers in Louisiana and the administrators in Virginia.

We've talked to dozens. They are scattered around the country from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles. They are private contractors, from the military and from NASA. They talk in hushed tones, like the parents of a sick child. It's clear that somewhere within each of them is that unmistakable, nagging question of guilt.

And they are worried. Not only about their immediate future, but the future of the shuttle program.

They fear the Columbia Accident Investigation Board will not be able to find the cause of the shuttle's destruction — and the deaths of all seven crew members. They worry that months will go by. The remaining space shuttle fleet — Atlantis, Endeavor and Discovery — will sit in hangers waiting for a mission.

Space Station, Shuttles in Trouble?

In Washington, the management of NASA tells us the International Space Station is in more trouble than they care to admit. Plans are being made for the current inhabitants to come home this spring. The crew, a Russian and two Americans, will fall to Earth in a small Russian capsule. American astronauts will land on a piece of Earth controlled by the same program that launched Sputnik and triggered the space race.

Then the race will be on to get the shuttle back and save the gradually decaying station before its opponents gather enough strength to scrap it and force a debate on the future of the nation's space program.

It may sound alarmist, but it is very real for people here.

We spoke with an official with the major shuttle contractor this week. His best-case scenario? He hoped that one of his people "screwed up," that the cause of the Columbia disaster would be found, and it would be someone who just didn't do their job. As devastating as that would be, it could be fixed quickly, and the shuttle would fly again soon.

‘Solid Theory’