Flight readiness review

In my analysis I focused first on the vocabulary used within the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) and the Mission Management Team (MMT), two key activities for operations of the SSP. For the MMT, I also relied on a simple frequency analysis of words that appeared in the official transcript of the MMT meetings during the ill-fated Columbia flight, officially designated as STS-107. 

Finding 2. The vocabulary of organizing views safety as a bureaucratic constraint within NASA s space shuttle program, embodied in formalized organizational practices, primarily, its Flight Readiness Review, Mission Management Team, and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis systems. 

This was the environment for October and November of 2002. During this time, a bipod foam event occurred on STS-112. For the first time in the history of the shuttle Program, the Program Requirements Control Board chose to classify that bipod foam loss as an action rather than a more serious In-Fhght Anomaly. At the STS-113 Flight Readiness Review, managers accepted with Uttle question the rationale that it was safe to fly with the known foam problem. 

The emphasis was on science-based technology. But science, in FRR [Flight Readiness Review] presentations required numbers. Data analysis that met the strictest standards of... 

Flight Readiness Review Foam shedding Is made an accepted risk not a saf of fll t Issue ... 

The first critical shift is the re-classification of foam events from in-flight anomalies to maintenance and turn around issues (STS-113 Flight Readiness Review, CAIB, 2003 125-6). Closely related is the shift to see foam loss as an accepted risk or even, as one pre-launch briefing put it, not a safety of flight issue (CAIB, 2003 126, 1st column to top of 2nd column). 

Flight Readiness Review (FRR), 43-4, 47 cognitive biases, 226 partial response graph, 211 relational analysis, 90, 91 vocabulary of organizing, 105, 109 10, 113 foam debris... 

ASR - Alternate System Review CDR - Critical Design Review FCA - Functional Configuration Audit FRR - Flight Readiness Review IBR - Integrated Baseline Review IRR - Integration Readiness Review... 

The Level I Flight Readiness Review for mission 51-L took place on January 15, 1986. The Flight Readiness Review should address all aspects of flight preparation about which any questions have arisen. In addition, attendees confirm that all equipment and operational plans have been certified by the responsible manager within NASA. Solid rocket booster joints were not discussed during the review on January 15. 

The formal portion of the process is initiated by directive from the Associate Administrator for Space Flight. The directive outlines the schedule for the Level I Flight Readiness Review and for the steps that precede it. The process begins at Level IV with the contractors formally certifying—in writing—the flight readiness of the elements for which they are responsible. Certification is... 

A structures Mission Management Team meeting, called L-1, is held 24 hours, or one day, prior to each scheduled launch. Its agenda includes closeout of any open work, a closeout of any Flight Readiness Review action items, a discussion of new or continuing anomalies, and an updated briefing on anticipated weather conditions at the launch site and at the abort landing sites in different parts of the world. It is standard practice of Level I and II ofiicials to... 

Neither the launch constraint, the reason for it, nor the six consecutive waivers prior to the 51-L were known to appropriate Level I or Level II personnel or the Director, Launch and Landing Operations, at the time of the Flight Readiness Review process for 51-L. 

Following the January 15 Flight Readiness Review each element of the shuttle was certified as flight-ready. 

The L-1 Mission Management Team meeting took place as scheduled at 11 00 A.M. (EST) on January 25. No technical issues appeared at this meeting or in the documentation and all Flight Readiness Review actions were reported closed out. 

The two internal and one external safety review teams that NASA utilized Flight Readiness Review (FRR)... 

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