"This is a very seminal moment of this agency's history. Our strength and resolve will be tested," NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said Wednesday, a day after investigators released their report stating that the US space agency's culture contributed significantly to the loss of Columbia.

"We get it," O'Keefe said of the report's message. "We clearly got the point."

He promised to read every word of the 250-page report and use it as "a roadmap to fix the problem" with an eye toward eventually resuming flights.

Appearing to tread cautiously, however, he has not yet set a date for the resumption of flights.

"We'll see" when that will happen, he said, responding to reporters' questions here, vowing to set the bar even higher than investigators had.

O'Keefe cited the working group of 27 experts created by NASA, which will help the agency decide on a time frame for resuming flights.

Earlier this month, NASA's associate administrator of space flight, Bill Readdy, called for flights to resume between March 11 and April 6.

But according to O'Keefe, "it's gonna be a long road."

"Our challenge will be to choose wisely the options to fully comply with these (the report's) recommendations," he said, because "the report covers human failure (and) how our culture needs to change."

Though criticized for not respecting security procedures and having a tendency to rely on past successes in making decisions on flights, NASA's space shuttle program was nevertheless described by Columbia Accident Investigation Board chief Harold Gehman as "not inherently unsafe."

The CAIB made a series of technical recommendations to Congress in a bid to avoid another disaster -- for example, NASA has to work to ensure that shuttles do not shed potentially fatal foam shards on future launches.

The report also revealed that a rescue bid could have been launched to save Columbia's astronauts if NASA had realized how critically the shuttle had been damaged during takeoff. Atlantis could have been readied for a rescue mission if the catastrophic damage to Columbia had been recognized by day seven of the mission.

NASA is starting to implement changes recommended by the board, including the installation of new cameras to monitor launches and the modification of insulating foam on external tanks, as it was a piece of this foam that broke away from Columbia on February 1, piercing the shuttle's protective skin and causing overheating that led the spacecraft to break apart as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

The space agency is also working on reinforcing the carbon panels that protect the vulnerable leading edge of the shuttle's wing.

The board's report, released Tuesday, also recommends establishing an independent technical authority to oversee safety for the shuttle program.

But Gehman warned that, going forward, "we shouldn't start by designing the next vehicle. That's a trap we've fallen into several times."

Columbia was the second shuttle to be lost, after the Challenger exploded just after takeoff in 1986. NASA currently has three surviving shuttles: Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery.

However, the CAIB said NASA will need to fully recertify the shuttles if it wants to fly them in space past 2010.

SPACE.WIRE