Space Administration
Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546-0001
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters Washington, DC 20546-0001 |
|
| Office of Inspector General | September 12, 1997 |
|
The Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner U.S. House of Representatives Chairman, Committee on Science Suite 2320 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515-6301 Dear Mr. Chairman: We wish to update our earlier letter to you on the Russian Mir Space Station to reflect recent events which have occurred since August 29, 1997. In addition, we will take this opportunity to make some other minor changes to our letter, but which do not impact on the risks we previously identified. On September 4, 1997, the Space Shuttle Systems Integration Office received an analysis of the Mir Condensate Recovery System (SRV-K) indicating that the drinking water processed through this system was safe for consumption. On September 8, 1997, the Manager of the Phase 1 Program was notified. On September 11, 1997, the crew was given authorization to drink the water after required in-flight maintenance (IFM) is completed in the next few days. Changes to the letter include: page 1, footnote 1, has been revised. On page 3, Section B., the fourth sentence has been changed to "problems associated with the accumulation of trash and other materials, storage, and disposal, particularly wet trash because of its bulk." The sixth sentence has been changed to "all agreed that better proficiency in the Russian language is necessary for safe operations on the Mir." The seventh sentence has been replaced with: "They all agreed that language proficiencies should be improved for all crew members aboard the ISS. Dr. Thagard stated that English should be the only language for system procedures on the ISS." On page 5, footnote 5, the references to potassium perchlorate have been changed to "lithium perchlorate." Footnote 6, the eighth sentence has been changed to: "Furthermore, one of the fire extinguishers used did not work properly." >{? On page 8, footnote 12, the second sentence has been changed to "The first communication pass over a ground station (Wallops Island, Virginia) occurred about 1 hour after the fire." On page 10, the last sentence in the second paragraph has been changed to "Many times, however, the crew would have to wait until the Mir was in daylight so the solar array panels could provide power to the communications equipment." On page 11, the first sentence of the last paragraph has been changed to "The Phase I Research Program results were presented to the Phase I Program Management and staff on May 30, 1997." We have enclosed a revised letter reflecting the changes described above. We are sending a copy of this letter to the NASA Administrator. If you have any questions or wish to discuss matters in this report in more detail, please contact me. Sincerely, /s/
Roberta L. Gross
cc: |