Cape Canavarel, Fla. — NASA said Thursday it is pushing the next shuttle flight into 2006 to give engineers time to understand dangerous fuel-tank foam loss and to avoid the string of unrealistic launch dates that preceded Discovery's just-completed mission.
In stinging comments Wednesday, seven members of a return-to-flight oversight group said the best solutions for improving Discovery's safety were not always pursued because of "this false schedule pressure."
They also blasted NASA for still exhibiting many of the same behavioral problems that contributed to the Columbia tragedy, poorly assessing shuttle risks and making the shuttle's return to space more complicated and costly than it needed to be.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said he urged the dissenters to "speak their minds" and wanted their views included in the task force's final report, which was issued Wednesday.
NASA's three remaining space shuttles are grounded as the agency investigates why a large, potentially catastrophic chunk of foam insulation broke off Discovery's fuel tank during liftoff last month - the same problem that doomed Columbia in 2003. Discovery's tank lost sizable pieces of foam from five areas, in fact.
The space agency wants to understand and stop this kind of foam loss before the shuttle flies again.
Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.