Wayne Hale
Wayne Hale
N. Wayne Hale Jr.is a former NASA engineer. Previously a flight director and space shuttle program manager, Hale served as NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Strategic Partnerships prior to his retirement on July 31, 2010...
change fly foremost prudent wish worked
We wish it had worked out differently, but it's first and foremost that we fly safely. It was prudent to change these sensors out.
confident flights launch sure three until
We will not launch until we are sure we can do it safely. But if we launch by July, we are confident we can still get three flights up this year.
ahead amount proceed prove safe until work
We have a considerable amount of work ahead of us. We won't proceed until we've done the work to prove that it's safe to fly.
hardware paying playing talking
We were playing the odds. The hardware was talking to us, and we were not paying attention.
parts
We don't want the parts to come apart.
aerodynamics lines normal
The bottom line is there is large uncertainty because nobody has a very good handle on the aerodynamics at those altitudes and at those speeds. Given that large degree of uncertainty, life could be normal during entry or some bad things could happen.
past roulette damage
The Columbia accident made us realize that we had been playing Russian roulette with the shuttle crews -- that we had been very, very fortunate in the past that the foam did not cause critical damage.
moving space flying
Having three operational vehicles in the fleet affords the shuttle program great schedule flexibility as we move toward flying safely and completing the international space station.
clear everybody guys launch next ought talk
You guys ought to be aware, and we have got to make it clear to everybody we talk to, when we launch the next flight, there is still going to be foam come off the tank.
time
Time will tell. This is not like the railroad.
certain damage risks
There are certain risks involved. You could damage the tank.
challenger cloud hoping
We were all hoping the Challenger would come out of that cloud of smoke.
aggressive closes launch lead occur schedule somewhat window
We think all of that with a somewhat aggressive schedule can occur and lead to a launch before the window closes in May.
condition near putting
We're going to keep (Atlantis) in as near flight-ready condition as we can without putting it through a (modification and overhaul) so we can use those parts.