Cape Canaveral: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) could have launched another shuttle to rescue the Columbia astronauts, including Indian origin Kalpana Chawla, if it had known early in the flight how severe the wing damage was and decided it was worth the extraordinary risk to the second ship and crew, the chief accident investigator said on May 23.

"A whole lot of 'if we could have done this and if this had happened and if that had happened,' if a whole lot of those 'ifs' had turned out affirmative, it's technically feasible to have done this," said retired Navy admiral Harold Gehman Jr, chairman of the Columbia accident investigation board.

"I've got no idea if it would have been successful or not," he said.

Gehman stressed that a rushed rescue mission by shuttle Atlantis and an experienced crew of four would have been "very, very risky – but not impossible."

He pointed out that in the military, "we frequently launch 120 people to go save one."

"If you've got a pilot down behind enemy lines, we do everything and anything possible to go get that person," he said in a telephone conference with reporters. "It's kind of a contract we have with the people who go into harm's way.

"NASA and the nation have that same contract with astronauts and it is my opinion, and from my personal background, that if there had been any erring, we would have erred on the side of taking the chance and going after them."

Earlier this week, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said he would have strongly considered sending Atlantis to the astronauts' rescue, even if it meant losing another shuttle and crew.

The investigation board asked NASA earlier this month to determine what could have been done to save Columbia's seven astronauts if the space agency had known that a chunk of flyaway foam insulation had created a fatal breach in the leading edge of the ship's left wing during lift off.

A rescue mission itself would have been "problematic", Gehman said.

With foam breaking off a ramped section of Atlantis' fuel tank in October and an even bigger chunk coming loose from the same area during Columbia's launch in January, it would have been risky to launch another shuttle without first fixing that problem, Gehman said. But for the sake of the study, the board only wanted to ascertain whether Atlantis could have been pressed into service.

NASA presented its preliminary findings to Gehman and other board members on May 23. A more detailed analysis will be included in the board's final report, to be released this summer.

Because Atlantis was about to be moved to the launch pad for a March 1 launch, it could have been ready to fly as early as February 11 or 12, three or four days before Columbia's air purifiers would have run out, Gehman said.

It would have turned out to be a night launch, which means there would have been no way to see any shedding foam, "so this thing really gets iffy", Gehman said.

Atlantis could have arrived at Columbia within 24 hours and flown in formation, 50 to 90 feet apart, while Atlantis astronauts could have escorted their colleagues from Columbia in a series of space walks, Gehman said. The abandoned Columbia ultimately would have been guided by remote control to crash into an ocean.

Agencies