WASHINGTON -- NASA's top official, saying he was "saddened beyond words" about the shuttle Columbia tragedy, told Congress Wednesday the orbiter exhibited no problems during its 16-day mission suggesting the crew's lives were threatened.
Sean O'Keefe, who recently took over as head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also offered assurances that investigators will discover the cause of the accident that killed seven astronauts and that a review board will operate without interference from NASA insiders.
O'Keefe said the space agency is committed to future flights but does not know when they can resume. He says NASA's schedule for shuttle missions - which anticipated five flights starting in fiscal 2004 - will be "adjusted as needed once we determine when we can return to flight."
"We know the lesson from this terrible accident is not to turn our backs on exploration simply because it is too hard or risky," O'Keefe said of the Feb. 1 disintegration of the shuttle as it was returning to Earth.
O'Keefe said that during the 16-day mission, "we had no indications that would suggest a compromise to flight safety."
He did not speculate in his opening testimony about what might have caused Columbia to break up over Texas and he offered few details about the directions that investigators might be considering.
Lawmakers from House and Senate space panels indicated in advance that they intended to press O'Keefe about whether a review board appointed to investigate the Columbia accident will be sufficiently independent.
"You have our assurance that this distinguished board will be able to act with genuine independence," O'Keefe said.
O'Keefe called the board's members - led by retired Navy Adm. Hal Gehman - "some of the best in the world at what they do," adding that they have been involved in 50 major investigations among them. They began meeting within 30 hours of Columbia's loss, he said.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., said he thinks the investigative board's charter must be rewritten because it does not guarantee sufficient independence.
"The charter's words need to match everyone's intent now to avoid any problems later," Boehlert told O'Keefe.
Sen. Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, said that as the investigation goes forward, "the government needs to focus the examination more squarely on how the exterior of the shuttle spacecraft may have failed and caused this catastrophic accident."
O'Keefe has fought to keep the Columbia investigation out of the hands of a presidential commission, such as the one that investigated the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.
Within hours of the Columbia accident, he activated the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, an organization selected by NASA that O'Keefe maintains is independent.
He pledged that investigators will solve the mystery of Columbia's loss.
"We will find the problem that caused the loss of Columbia and its crew, we will fix it and we will return to flight operations that are as safe as humanly possible in pursuit of knowledge," O'Keefe said.
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