The Columbia disaster was the culmination of disastrous mismanagement by NASA's most senior officials

WASHINGTON, February 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Fears of a catastrophic shuttle accident were raised last summer with the White House by a former NASA engineer who pleaded for a presidential order to halt all further shuttle flights until safety issues had been addressed, a leading British newspaper reported on Sunday, February 2.

In a letter to the White House, Don Nelson, who served with NASA for 36 years until he retired in 1999, wrote to President George W. Bush warning that his 'intervention' was necessary to 'prevent another catastrophic space shuttle accident', said The Observer.

Nelson served during his last 11 years at NASA as a mission operations evaluator for proposed advanced space transportation projects. He was on the initial design team for the space shuttle.

Listing a series of mishaps with shuttle missions since 1999, Nelson warned in his letter that NASA management and the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel have failed to respond to the growing warning signs of another shuttle accident.

Since 1999 the vehicle had experienced a number of potentially disastrous problems, added the paper.

In 1999, Columbia's launch was delayed by a hydrogen leak, and in August 2000 inspection of the space shuttle revealed 3,500 defects in wiring.

White House officials rejected Nelson's plea for a moratorium. He tried to talk again to NASA's administration about his worries in October but was again rebuffed.

"Disastrous Mismanagement"

Nelson told The Observer that he feared the Columbia disaster was the culmination of 'disastrous mismanagement' by NASA's most senior officials and would inevitably lead to the moratorium he was calling for.

'I became concerned about safety issues in NASA after Challenger. I think what happened is that very slowly over the years NASA's culture of safety became eroded."

'But when I tried to raise my concerns with NASA's new administrator, I received two reprimands for not going through the proper channels, which discouraged other people from coming forward with their concerns. When it came to an argument between a middle-ranking engineer and the astronauts and administration, guess who won.

'One of my biggest complaints has been that we should have been looking for ways to develop crew escape modules, which NASA has constantly rejected.'

His claims emerged against a background of growing concern over the management of safety issues by NASA.

The paper said these claims followed similar warnings in April 2002 by the former chairman of the Aerospace Safety Advisory panel, Richard Bloomberg, who said: 'In all of the years of my involvement, I have never been as concerned for space shuttle safety as now.'

Bloomberg blamed the deferral or elimination of planned safety upgrades, a diminished workforce as a result of hiring freezes, and an ageing infrastructure for the advisory panel's findings.

His warning echoed earlier concern about key shuttle safety issues. In September 2001 at a Senate hearing into shuttle safety, senators and independent experts warned that budget and management problems were putting astronauts lives at risk, the paper said.

At the center of concern were claims that a budget overspend of almost $5 billion (£3bn) had led to a culture in NASA whereby senior managers treated shuttle safety upgrades as optional.

Among those who spoke out were Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, who warned: 'I fear that if we don't provide the space shuttle program with the resources it needs for safety upgrades, our country is going to pay a price we can't bear, said The Observer.

"We're starving NASA's shuttle budget and thus greatly increasing the chance of a catastrophic loss.'

Although NASA officials said that improvements were being made they admitted that more needed to be done.