A political battle over a demand from Senate Democrats for a more aggressive investigation of the Challenger shuttle explosion erupted on Capitol Hill Friday, and NASA`s chief administrator, on leave of absence while facing fraud charges unrelated to the agency, said the ”time is coming” for his resignation.
James Beggs, who has been on a leave of absence as NASA administrator following a federal indictment two months ago on charges connected with a job he previously held at General Dynamics Corp., said in an interview Friday that the ”time is coming soon” for his resignation.
Beggs said that his pending criminal trial is likely to drag on much longer than he originally had expected and he was worried about the stability of the embattled space program. There have been charges–denied at NASA–that Beggs had been continuing to play a role in running the agency while on leave.
”This is my decision, pure and simple,” said Beggs, who said he was not pressured by White House officials trying to shore up the agency`s reputation in the wake of his indictment and the space shuttle Challenger`s explosion Jan. 28 that killed its crew of seven.
He did not say when he would submit his resignation formally. William Graham has served as acting director since Beggs went on leave. Beggs denied claims that he had attempted to assert any control within the agency while on leave and said he had nothing to do with the decision to go ahead with the launch of Challenger in unsually cold weather.
(The New York Times Saturday quoted a top space agency official as saying Beggs had told Reagan aides that he did not want Graham as his successor but that Beggs did not intend to make his resignation contingent on bypassing Graham.)
A senior administration official indicated that a search was actively underway for a new administrator.
Beggs was indicted Dec. 2 along with three other current or former General Dynamics executives on charges of trying to defraud the Pentagon of millions of dollars to cover losses on a 1978 defense contract that involved development of an antiaircraft weapons system. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, in Congress, the Challenger investigation took on a political tone when Republicans on the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Space, Science and Technology rejected a request from three Democrats to hold more hearings on the accident, saying the investigation should be handled by the specially created presidential commission.
Sen. Ernest Hollings (D., S.C.), the subcommittee member who has been most outspoken in his criticism of NASA, requested additional hearings because he said the presidential commission was not conducting its inquiry properly and because, he said, Graham had ”misled” the senators in testimony last Tuesday. Hollings called for Graham`s resignation earlier this week. He has claimed repeatedly that the presidential commission needs strong
investigators.
Sen. Slade Gorton (R., Wash.), the subcommittee chairman, also expressed reservations about Graham`s testimony. ”I am not totally satisfied by any means (with) the testimony of Mr. Graham,” he said. But Gorton and subcommittee member Sen. John Danforth (R., Mo.) said it would be
counterproductive for the senators to conduct an inquiry until the commission issued a report.
Hollings and subcommittee member Sen. Donald Riegle (D., Mich.), disagreed strongly with the Republicans` position.
The Senate subcommittee has held only one hearing, which was marked by heated exchanges between Hollings and presidential commission chairman William Rogers. Hollings demanded more information and Rogers advised patience while the presidential commission investigation is underway.
Hollings and Riegel said there was tremendous pressure within NASA to proceed with the launch in the face of initial recommendations against it from Morton Thiokol Inc., which makes the solid-rocket boosters. Morton Thiokol was worried about the unprecedented cold temperatures during the launch.
Despite the opposition of a number of its engineers, the company changed its position after a long round of telephone talks–viewed by some who participated as including undue pressure from NASA urging a change of mind
–with NASA officials.
However, three members of the presidential commission left the Morton Thiokol plant in Brigham City, Utah, after a nine-hour fact-finding mission Friday saying they had not yet found evidence that NASA pressured the solid-rocket booster manufacturer into approving the launch.
David Acheson, a Washington attorney and commission member, said the team asked engineers and management officials about reports that NASA had exerted pressure to cause them to change their minds about an initial recommendation to scrap the launch because of cold temperatures.
”We looked into that quite deeply,” Acheson said. ”I don`t want to characterize either the people involved or our impressions, but you`d have to look very, very hard and want to find it to find anything like that so far.” Acheson said it was a ”fair statement” that the three commission members found no evidence Friday to support the reported theory that Morton Thiokol bowed to pressure from NASA to maintain its launch schedule.
Acheson said the nine-hour tour of the plant included a discussion with Allan J. McDonald, director of the shuttle solid-rocket motor project, who reportedly told the commission last week that Morton Thiokol engineers opposed launching on Jan. 28 due to the cold temperatures but were overruled by management officials.
Joe C. Kilminster, vice president of the space booster program at Morton Thiokol and the man who ultimately signed off on the contractor`s approval to launch, was not in Brigham City and did not speak with commission members, Acheson said.
It appears that cold weather played a most significant role in the explosion, affecting the two critical O-ring seals between sections of the solid-fuel booster rockets that are designed to keep the tremendous pressure of the burning fuel inside the rocket casing.
In other developments Friday:
— The authoritative space industry magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology, quoting NASA sources, said studies a year ago indicated that wind deflected from the shuttle`s external tank, frigid because of the supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuels, could freeze portions of a booster rocket, but NASA did not consider that data when clearing Challenger for launch.
— The Associated Press reported that the ice inspection team found even colder temperatures on a strut connecting the solid-fuel rocket to the huge fuel tank. Under one scenario, such a strut may have broken during the catastrophe, allowed the solid-fuel rocket to pivot on its remaining struts and puncture the big tank holding the oxygen and hydrogen fuels.
— At Cape Canaveral, it was learned that a military team with expertise in examining human remains and making identifications has been part of the investigation, although NASA officials have repeatedly refused to comment on speculation that remains of the astronauts had been found.
