One must observe, after reading the concerns expressed below, that it's all a numbers game when it comes to wiring. One of the best maintained small fleets in the world yet they still found ongoing crippling wiring problems - following on from a launch "scare".  That Shuttle Fleet is totally under-utilised and so wear and tear must be seen to be minimal compared to an airliner that may spend 17 or 18 hours a day airborne, seven days a week.

The safety philosophy is evidently as follows: In a four-ship shuttle fleet a wiring-caused disaster would constitute a 25% accident rate. In a 2500 plus US airline fleet it would be a drop in the bucket and fall amongst the acceptable attrition scatter of statistical rates. That's precisely why wiring got the attention it did from NASA. They grounded their fleet for five months and cancelled launches. Now read on and see if you concur.

Aging shuttle fleet worries NASA panel

February 11, 2000 Web posted at: 4:47 p.m. EST (2147 GMT)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- While the Endeavour lifted off successfully Friday, a safety oversight panel has raised concerns over what will happen once the number of space shuttle flights picks up.

Cutbacks and reorganizations over the past several years, coupled with a prior hiring freeze and unplanned departures, have resulted in a shortage of critical skills in some areas, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel told NASA in its annual report Thursday.

Those measures have also increased workload pressure and stress levels, the panel said. The group was formed in the wake of the 1967 Apollo spacecraft fire that killed three astronauts during a launch pad exercise.

NASA is coming off its slowest year in a decade because of damaged shuttle wiring and stalled work on the international space station. This year promises to be almost as bad.

Endeavour was supposed to conduct its Earth-mapping mission last fall but was put on hold because of the wiring problem. Last week's launch attempt was spoiled by a malfunctioning computer.

With the wiring problems behind them and the space station setbacks being tackled more aggressively, shuttle managers hope to launch nine times in 2001 -- triple the 1999 rate. And that has the safety panel worried.

The panel stressed that safety consciousness remains high at NASA, "from hands-on labor to top management." "Nevertheless," it warned, "workforce issues remain among the most serious safety concerns of the panel."Cutbacks and reorganizations over the past several years have resulted in problems related to workforce size, critical skills and the extent of on-the-job experience," the panel said. "These problems have the potential to impact safety as the space shuttle launch rate increases to meet the demands of the ISS (international space station) and its other customers."The panel said the workforce problems are most notable at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where shuttle and station operations are based.

Aware of the potential for problems as shuttles start flying more often, NASA plans to hire more workers under President Clinton's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The space agency also plans to spend more money on shuttle improvements.

"We did not in any way compromise the shuttle over the years," NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said at the budget unveiling earlier this week. "Each and every year, we monitored a whole variety of metrics to make sure we operate safely."

As for all the shuttle trouble over the past year -- damaged wiring, engine debris, improperly installed tiles -- NASA took the proper course of action to fix each problem and safety was never compromised, the panel said.

The panel noted, however, that the electrical wiring problem "could well be a harbinger of things to come in the aging orbiter fleet."

The problem surfaced when an exposed wire caused a short circuit during the July launch of Columbia, NASA's oldest shuttle. Damaged wiring was later found in all four shuttles and led to a grounding of the fleet.

In its report, the panel said there are still too many "escapes" in work procedures, and it questioned the degree of insight NASA has into the way its contractors operate.