Conference 7.286::space

756.0. "UPI: NASA needs overall testing policies" by PRAGMA::GRIFFIN (Dave Griffin) Tue Sep 24 1991 20:43

From: [email protected]
Keywords: usa federal, government, space, science
Date: 23 Sep 91 19:23:07 GMT


	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Citing the failure of NASA testing to detect a
flaw in the Hubble space telescope, the General Accounting Office said
Monday the space agency lacks a uniform policy for checking out all
systems prior to launch.
	The GAO, the congressional watchdog agency, said the lack of a
uniform policy has led to testing guidance that is ``fragmented and not
well defined'' although, based on the succesful record of missions the 
``tests have been adequate.'' 
	In a report, the GAO said, ``For example, of the 10 NASA-developed
payloads placed in orbit between January 1986 and December 1990, seven
have met their initial mission objectives.
	``One of the 10 has not been in orbit long enough to accomplish its
objective and the remaining two -- the Hubble telescope and the Astro-1
payload -- experienced mission-limiting failures,'' the report said.
	``In some cases, however, tests have not revealed problems early
enough,'' the GAO said. ``For example, launch of a 1990 shuttle mission
was delayed by over four months because earlier acceptance tests did not
identify defects in seals where the external tank and orbiter fuel lines
join.''
	Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., who requested the study, said, ``We've
learned the hard way that microscopic flaws can bring catastrophic
problems threatening entire missions. The GAO is making a simple but
critical point -- unless NASA testing procedures are improved and
strengthened, we're going to continue to face these problems.''
	The GAO said NASA agreed it needed an overall testing policy and told
the GAO investigators that several actions have been taken to put the
recommendations into effect.
	Among the weaknesses cited by the GAO, the report said current policy
does not require a comprehensive test plane on each project to how
performance requirements should be validated, does not define
responsibility for testing and does not indentify and limitations in the
testing program.
	``Because testing criteria differ from center to center, hardware
designed for the same mission may be tested to different standards,''
the report said. ``For example, until recently, the four centers
developing space station hardware each planned to use its own testing
standards on that program.''