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WASHINGTON
NASA

Rocket crashes spur demands for review of NASA program

Ledyard King
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Two Republican senators are pressing NASA’s inspector general for a “full review” of a program created to replace the space shuttle.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., June 28, 2015. The rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station broke apart shortly after liftoff.

The request from Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and David Vitter of Louisiana comes in response to two crashes in the past year of rockets — both built by private aerospace companies — to ferry supplies to the International Space Station.

Gardner and Vitter want the Government Accountability Office to thoroughly examine several aspects of NASA’s Commercial Cargo Program. Gardner sits on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee that oversees NASA.

In a Sept. 1 letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who heads the GAO, the two lawmakers say they want to know why the rocket launches failed, whether interruptions in cargo deliveries to the space station pose any risks, and if future commercial launches to the orbiting lab will be reliable.

More detailed inquiries in the letter include a request for information about future launch schedules, payments made to contractors, and the value of lost cargo.

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“In order to continue America’s leadership in space, we believe the answer to these questions warrant Congressional review in order to ensure reliable and timely access to space,” the senators wrote.

One of the two crashes that led to demands for a review involved an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket that crashed seconds after its launch in Virginia in October. The other involved a SpaceX rocket that crashed about two minutes after liftoff in Florida in June.

Both accidents remain under investigation and are being scrutinized by investigators from NASA and other federal agencies, NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said in a letter last week to a House lawmakers who had raised concerns about how NASA was handling its investigation into the crashes.

GAO spokesperson Charles Young said Wednesday the request from Gardner and Vitter is being reviewed. He said it usually takes a few weeks to decide whether to grant such a request.

Any examination of the Commercial Cargo Program would look primarily at private launches to the International Space Station, the first of which took place in 2012. But it also would touch on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which aims to begin transporting astronauts from U.S. soil to the space station as early as 2017. The shuttle last flew in 2011.

NASA spokesperson Stephanie Schierholz said NASA will “support any GAO inquiry.”

Though there have been no resupply missions launched from U.S. soil to the space station since the SpaceX accident, recent cargo missions from Japan and Russia have restocked the station with necessary supplies through December.

Both SpaceX and Orbital have said they plan to resume launches by the end of the year.

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