Workplace Safety Awareness Council Blog

I just arrived back from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and had a great time. Looks like NASA is going to retire the space shuttle and transition into a new breed of craft, so i figured now would be a great time to see a final liftoff.

One of the concerns for this flight is the space junk floating around near the Hubble telescope where the shuttle is going for repairs.

I found it interesting that NASA has calculated the risk for a catastrophic collision with junk during the mission at 1 in 229. A typical shuttle mission is calculated at a 1 in 300 risk and it appears their threshold for tolerance is 1 in 200.

The crew spent Tuesday checking the outside of the shuttle for any damage from debris during launch, finding four nicks that initially seem minor, but there is some concern. We all remember what happened when Space Shuttle Columbia got hit by a piece of foam during launch and later disintegrated during re-entry.

But the biggest danger on any shuttle flight is getting hit with space junk or tiny space rocks at high speeds during orbit, not during launch. Because objects circle the Earth at high speed, something as small as one-third the width of a dime can penetrate the shuttle's cabin, causing a major—maybe even fatal—problem, according to NASA.

Of course NASA has prepared for this contingency and they even have a backup space shuttle on the launching pad right now ready to rescue the crew should additional damage occur.

So this brings up a great question, whats your contingency plan for workplace emergencies? Hopefully you've conducted your hazard analysis. You've used a hierarchy of control to eliminate or at least reduce the hazards in the workplace. Sometimes things happen. operator error, equipment malfunction, so called acts-of-god. If this happens, do you have a backup plan?

You should and we encourage you to start reviewing or developing those plans this month. Of course should you need assistance, we're here to help. next month we'll talk about contingency plans, so be looking for our e-newsletter. . .

Labels: Contingency Plan, NASA, Safety, Space Shuttle