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the dawn of a new day holding the

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promise of new discoveries new

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challenges new accomplishments a new

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beginning America's space program is

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it's a whole new world out there we

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belong in space I think the shuttle is

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the epitome of flight the people that's

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what makes it really all come together

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of us have the kind of a pride and the

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feeling forget our job done that we're

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really putting that above a lot of our

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personal needs and personal activities

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these are the people of the marshall

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space flight center shuttle projects an

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integral part of that new beginning

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their job the redesign and certification

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of the shuttles propulsion elements the

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external tank the structural backbone of

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the space transportation system the main

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engines the most technologically

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advanced liquid fueled engines ever

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built and the solid rocket booster with

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the largest solid propellant motor ever

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hundreds of dedicated men and women

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across the country government and

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industry working side-by-side to a

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rebuilding the country space program

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assembling the finest technical

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scientific and management resources to

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study and analyze every aspect of the

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these exhaustive review efforts from

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outside and within the agency culminated

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with the issuance of a set of actions

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from the NASA associate administrator

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for Space Flight Bob Marshall manager of

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the shuttle project office at the

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Marshall Space Flight Center explains he

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established the requirements that he

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felt were necessary for us to have a

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safe return to flight these requirements

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are identified in a letter that she is

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dated March 24 that preceded the

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Commission report of june six 1986

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however it included the points that were

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recovered within the Commission report

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the first of these is probably more

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important was a reassessment of the

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entire program management structure and

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its operation it provided the

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requirement and we have since then

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establish that we would have a program

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line of communications which we referred

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to as level 3 2 1 and we also have an

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institutional which is the center

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directors and the organizations within

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each of the centers with report today

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truly the second of his of course was

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the redesign of the joint and the SRM

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redesign is progressing very well the

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third of these was a design requirements

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verification there are some modification

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being made both to the requirements as

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well as to the hardware and as to the

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verification process the fourth of these

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is a review of the critical items list

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and a review of the theme of sale or

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theme of failure modes effects analysis

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there have been at least three rather

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significant items at

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uncovered in this reassessment which

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will help us to make the vehicle more

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safe but more importantly we have

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identified a number of the failure modes

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that can be eliminated through design

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and we are doing that in the critical

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item one type category we also are

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addressing a complete review which is

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item 5 of the operation and maintenance

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documents these documents are the KSC

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documents which provide the instructions

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for the people there to check out the

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hardware as it arrives from our design

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center additionally we are looking again

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at the launch abort and launch flight

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launch rules there are a number of those

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which are not going to be changed but as

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a result of FEMA sill will be some added

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potentially that will address final

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checks to be sure that the category one

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or critical one failures are in fact

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well checked out prior to launch the

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seventh one of these is the first light

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years operations we have addressed those

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areas with any operational part of the

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program that allow us to return to

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flight and complete our flight

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assignments like we came out of the last

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series of Lights and have not lost any

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of the enthusiasm for the people there

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more importantly any of the knowledge

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that's necessary for flight the number

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eight item from dick truely's letter is

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a development of a substantive safe

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flight rate we have reassessed that

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recently and we are now attempting to

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make sure that we have a safe flight

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rate that is somewhere in the

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neighborhood of 14 to 16 the last item a

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dick Trudy's letter was referred to as

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the bottom line

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do have in fact an organizational

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structure staffed with the kinds of

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people in the proper positions that

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allow us to return to flight safely and

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maintain the kind of decision trail that

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is necessary to assure that we don't

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have another type accident of the 51 m

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overall the marshall center in my

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opinion as well as our contractor

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friends are at this point improved

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substantially and not on the

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communications but through outlook and

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their participation in the program and i

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believe as I look down toward 1988 there

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will be a readiness for launch we will

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have covered all of the quote basis

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unquote and we will be in a position at

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a posture to have a fight that is safe

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and again put this nation back into

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with clearly defined guidelines and

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objectives each project is involved in

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the business of returning to safe flight

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operations Porter Bridwell manager of

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the external tank project shortly after

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51 L we aggressively stepped into the

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reassessment activities what we wanted

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to assure our self of in reassessing the

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toll hardware on the tank was to assure

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herself number one we had identified all

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the single point where years an external

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tank and secondly after doing that is to

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assure ourselves from a test

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verification design standpoint that

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those were acceptable risk for the next

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slide of the external tankers has

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protected Thomas worth vice-president

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external tank project for Martin

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Marietta while the return to flight

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activities are going on we still are in

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production here at Martin Marietta miss

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you we are also looking at how we build

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a tank to certify that that process is

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correct taking the design requirements

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how they're implemented down through the

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bill procedures and then actually how

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the tank is built I'm happy to say that

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in review of this process we have found

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that the process is right and the tanks

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are building are built to the

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engineering our scale is a 100

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their attitude and their performance

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particularly in production there is

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somewhere between 95 two hundred percent

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because we are building better parts out

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here now even even better than before

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NASA's overall commitment to mission

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success is the the overriding factor

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here and i want to say the shuttle fly

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Space Shuttle main engine project

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manager Joe Lombardo we were feeling

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quite confident with the ssme as it flew

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in the prior 25 flights but we saw the

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opportunity given this downtime to go

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ahead and through design analysis

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develop some product improvements and

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then subject them to grant test exposure

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many many good ideas were developed by

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the combined government and prime

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contractor team that is Rocketdyne

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division of rockwell international we we

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were able to get these changes into

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hardware get him to the test stand and

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we started a very aggressive ground test

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program ray to lender the Marshall Space

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Flight Center resident office manager at

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rocketdyne a really significant thing in

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this program right now is in the last

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six months that we have tremendously

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accelerated the test program and this is

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where it really all comes together with

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the ssme we can truly simulate what we

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do in flight on the ground in each and

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every test we can do it on multiple

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samples and over and over again and

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through that process we really find out

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what our margins are where our weak

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links are where our strong points are it

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gives us the confidence to get back into

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flight safely and efficiently

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Bob pastor vice president ssme program

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manager for Rocketdyne we have a lot of

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hardware the build a lot of testing to

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perform we're working hard hours and

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we're all working together both

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Rocketdyne and again and NASA team in

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accomplishing what has to be done before

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we fly again all the employees take a

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personal pride and delivering Hardware

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in an engine that has to perform

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perfectly every time there's not only a

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technical commitment to the ssme but

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there's also emotional commitment the

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shuttle it's one of the greatest things

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solid rocket booster project manager

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Gerald Smith we're in the process of

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redesign of the the joints in a solid

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rocket motor and other parts of the

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motor that we found where we could

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provide performance margin and so that's

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a major activity that is required to be

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completed as a part of our return to

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flight we initially established a team

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at Marshall to work very closely with

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Morton Thiokol in the redesign of the

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solid rocket motor this team drew on a

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nucleus of people from our science in

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his new directory who had past

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experience or on the SRB program and

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then the discipline areas to support a

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redesign it's my assessment this merging

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of the two teams and specially the team

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in place if I call has none exactly what

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it was intended to do it has a lot of

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their close working relationship a

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report of the established between the

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government contractor team Royce

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Mitchell manager of the solid rocket

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motor project we recognize there would

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be many analyses many tests many reviews

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and in order to speed things up to

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ordinary base of understanding we just

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brought the people to the job it'll

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speed things up it'll result in a better

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product the test program from for the

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solid rocket motor redesign starts in

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the lab literally at the microscopic

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level progresses on through component

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level subsystem assembly levels and then

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finally to the finished product which is

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the full scale static motor firings of

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course the culmination of all our test

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program they are the verification that

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all of our sub assembly and laboratory

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tests have led us in the right direction

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Carver Kennedy vice president of space

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programs for Morton Thiokol this is one

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of the most extensive development and

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testing programs I personally have ever

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been associated with in some 30 years in

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this business we believe the program we

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have laid out and the testing activities

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which we have undertaken will in fact be

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successful and give us great confidence

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that will return to flight on the

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schedule that nASA has established gene

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Kegel senior vice president of programs

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and operations for USB I booster

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production company incorporated we've

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also suspected 1l of going back and made

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some changes that will enhance the

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performance the hardware they did a more

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reliable and safe a hardware that was

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really a main goal it's become a lot of

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this thing with a recertification

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program they'll make to you overall

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before must be better and more reliable

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safe hardware I go on at the month I

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mean I'm that confident what I've seen

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in all the motors that I've been

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involved

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I love the formula I think it's everyone

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else's obligation to do our best every

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day on they have excellent people

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working on program very highly motivated

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and we all have a common goal less work

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toward making this thing as safe and

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well it's just a tremendous period for

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swear I ain't taking this opportunity to

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stop and relook and where we've been and

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now we're starting a look at where we're

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going jr thompson director of the

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marshall space flight center everybody

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that I've seen throughout NASA is very

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enthusiastic about the program we

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understand its risk but we're ready to

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each passing day brings NASA closer to

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renewed space flight operations due in

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large part to the efforts of these

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people it is a marvelous flying machine

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and i think that the agency needs it

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we're working hard to make that happen

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their teamwork an inspiring example of

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the human spirit this is a very unique

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capability that the country has and

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we're doing our best to maintain and

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preserve if you pass it on and I think

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that others ought to and will keep up

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that heritage their dedication a

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commitment to the hopes dreams and

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expectations of an entire nation I'm

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ready let's go right now t minus 10 nine

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we have a go for main engine start and

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we have main engine start four three two