Stanford Physics Professor Joins Board to Investigate Columbia Crash
Posted on: Thursday, 13 March 2003, 06:00 CST
By Michael Miller, The Stanford Daily ( Stanford U. )
(U-WIRE) STANFORD, Calif. -- Stanford University Nobel Prize-winning Physics Professor Douglas Osheroff was appointed last week to the board investigating the crash of the space shuttle Columbia on Feb. 1.
He is one of three new members, all appointed from outside the NASA establishment, who were added to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to assure its independence.
Stanford alumna and astronaut Sally Ride was also among the three recently appointed members, and she and Osheroff will join 12 other distinguished investigators on the board, which hopes to come to a definitive conclusion in the next few months about the cause of the disaster.
"I am honored that they think I have the knowledge and skills they need," Osheroff said.
Osheroff noted in an e-mail interview with The Daily that, though he was not a space expert, his knowledge in other areas could be useful.
"I certainly have no special expertise regarding the shuttle," he said. "However, I am an accomplished experimental physicist. I also have special expertise in low-temperature physics, which may well be useful in efforts to understand why the foam insulation keeps falling off the external fuel tank during launch."
Osheroff added, "I hope that the bulk of the investigation will be completed in about three months. This investigation is on a fast track, and the nation would like some answers before the astronauts in the International Space Station must be brought back to Earth."
Osheroff was appointed to the board after retired Adm. Harold Gehman, chairman of the board, appealed to NASA administrators for more independent members.
Other professors noted that Osheroff will add a unique independence to the board.
"He will help them come to as reasonable a judgment as he can," said Stanford Aeronautics and Astronautics Prof. Emeritus Holt Ashley. "He has no axes to grind."
Ashley said that bringing in independent, intelligent individuals was more important than appointing those with specialized expertise.
Osheroff's appointment is reminiscent of Nobel Laureate physicist Richard Feynman's appointment to the board investigating the Challenger explosion.
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