Security breach forces tighter shuttle protection
BY CRAIG COVAULT
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/aviationnow.com
PUBLISHED HERE WITH PERMISSION

Posted: July 9, 2001

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER -- Security forces are sharply increasing the surveillance and overall level of anti-terrorist protection around the space shuttle launch pads this week ahead of the scheduled launch of the orbiter Atlantis and its five-member crew early July 12.

  Atlantis
Atlantis sits atop the seaside launch pad 39B, awaiting liftoff on Thursday. Photo: NASA
 
The countdown for the launch got underway early July 9.

In addition to the heightened security around the sea-side shuttle pads, overall security at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and around the expendable vehicle pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station are also likely to be increased in the weeks ahead, said Calvin Burch, chief of the Kennedy Protective Services Branch.

The moves are a direct result of a NASA/U.S. Air Force contractor review conducted in the wake of a major KSC security breach July 5 by an undetected Jamaican smuggler and 15 Chinese illegal aliens.

The increased concern is coupled with a world wide U.S. alert because of threats from suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden.

KSC and the Cape were already at a heightened "Threatcon Alpha" security status when the July 5 breach occurred.

The Jamaican, working under the cover of darkness, managed to land a sizable boat carrying the Chinese on the Atlantic shore near the new Pad 41 Lockheed Martin Atlas V complex and only about 2 miles south of Pad 39A, where the orbiter Discovery is mounted.

The Chinese remained undetected concealed in the brush, until the Jamaican and one of the Chinese blundered into a uniformed officer on patrol and asked to use his cell phone -- apparently to call for a pre-arranged pickup. The officer instead called for more security force help.

Security officials believe the illegal aliens landed at the launch site by mistake, planning instead to land along a routine stretch of beach for pickup by accomplices.

They were quickly rounded up by security personnel and handed over to U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officers. Other accomplices in the boat escaped undetected, however.

The concern is that the boat operations and aliens in the brush went undetected for hours in what is supposed to be a highly secure area.

Had the landing been carried out as successfully by terrorists, the intruders could have attacked and severely damaged unmanned launchers or the shuttle Discovery on Pad 39A or Atlantis on Pad 39B. Under a worst-case scenario, concealed terrorists could attack a shuttle when fueled during the final stages of a shuttle countdown or the initial phase of liftoff -- a potentially fatal scenario for the crew.

"You can bet we have increased our coverage in the area where these people came in...We are vulnerable," Burch told Aviation Week & Space Technology.

The shoreline area where the illegal aliens landed is already heavily patrolled, but aerial and ground patrols have been increased since the incident.

Those patrols include infrared and other sensors and are always increased in the week before a manned launch.

But the incident is also likely to result in greater security measures at all times in the future.

A contractor, Space Gateway Services, provides a combined security force for both Cape Canaveral and KSC.

  Titan 4B
Aerial view of Complex 40 as a Titan 4B rocket lifts off earlier this year with the Atlantic Ocean as backdrop. Photo: Russ Underwood, Lockheed Martin Space Systems
 
There are a total of 300 to 400 officers who work in shifts to patrol about 100 miles of lagoon and ocean shore line around the Cape/KSC pads. The ocean shoreline alone stretches about 20 miles.

Burch said the security force on duty in the area was following procedure and he had no fault with their operations leading up to discovery of the Chinese.

The problem is that the area to be patrolled is so vast that Burch said he "has no expectation" that all intruders could be detected.

The shuttle and Air Force Titan IV and Atlas V pads are all equipped with perimeter fences, security cameras and motion detectors in areas outside the fences. The basic philosophy is that those measures would prevent attackers from directly reaching a shuttle or expendable booster pad.

But Burch concurred that a terrorist with survival skills could possibly land undetected -- as did the Chinese aliens -- then conceal himself for a period until he used a high powered rifle or other portable weapon to attack vehicles on the launch pad.

He said security officials have specifically studied the vehicle damage potential for specific caliber weapons from certain distances from the shuttle and other vehicles, as well as the ranges and capabilities of shoulder-fired missiles, like the Russian SA-7 and U.S. Stinger (which has also fallen into hostile hands.)

Burch also concurred that had the boat that delivered the Chinese been mounted with a weapon, it could have started shelling the shuttle or Titan IV or Atlas V pads before being detected.

He cited budget cuts and cost-cutting measures as a factor in not equipping KSC with more fences or more electronic detectors.

The transition to commercial support operations for some unmanned Cape operations will also reduce somewhat the security manpower available for expendable vehicles, he said.

Multiple security reviews have been conducted here in the past. "We have identified many times where we needed quite a few more sensors and physical barriers...but the money is just not available for them," Burch said.

He said one KSC request for more security funding has been sitting with no action "apparently at the Office of Management and Budget" for more than a year.

Burch said funding requests for new security measures have often been the loser in money tradeoffs involving the potential for project layoffs or the need to repair potentially-hazardous, aging facilities.

In addition to the sea-borne threat, airborne threats are also a concern here. A suicidal terrorist could fly a light aircraft into the side of a fueled shuttle largely unopposed.

KSC, unlike the Arianespace launch site at Kourou, French Guiana, has no anti-aircraft artillery positioned to shoot down an approaching hostile aircraft. This editor has seen such manned anti-aircraft guns around the Ariane launch site.

The KSC and Cape security forces do train against potential threats, including exercises involving their own SWAT teams as well as U.S. Navy Seals and U.S. Army Rangers. And they have been successful in stopping those simulated intruders, Burch said.