For release: 08/21/03
Release #: 03-144

NASA Marshall Center space tranportation group reaches safety milestone

The Marshall Center's Space Transportation Directorate has reached a significant safety goal, logging 3 million work hours without a lost-time injury. The directorate, a key leader in NASA's development of advanced space transportation, launch vehicle systems and in-space propulsion, last suffered a lost-time injury to a civil servant in January 2000.

The Space Transportation Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has reached a significant safety goal, logging 3 million work hours without a lost-time injury.

A lost-time injury is defined as an injury causing an employee to miss one or more days of work.

The last lost-time injury of a civil servant within the Space Transportation Directorate was in January 2000. The directorate is a key leader in NASA's development of advanced space transportation, launch vehicle systems and in-space propulsion, and provides world-class propulsion and engineering expertise to NASA's Space Shuttle program. The organization includes nearly 500 civil service and 177 contractor employees at the Marshall Center, occupying 53 buildings, including propulsion testing areas, full-size rocket test stands and numerous laboratories.

"Safety is the top priority within NASA, and I'm glad the Transportation Directorate and the people who support it realize that with this significant achievement, we are living examples of that priority," said Dennis Kross, director of the Space Transportation Directorate at Marshall. "This is a real demonstration of our teamwork and commitment as we strive to make this a safe and healthy environment for everyone. This is just a sign we are doing our job and doing it well."

In April 2004, some of the directorate's employees are scheduled to move into the Propulsion Research Laboratory, now under construction at the Marshall Center. The 108,000-square-foot facility will provide office and laboratory space for propulsion research and small-scale experiments supporting lower cost, more efficient and safer access to space.

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