NASA is in a huge hurry to get the space shuttle Discovery off the ground and back into space, despite being worried about foam coming off the shuttle's external fuel tank and causing the type of damage that doomed the Columbia two years ago.
According to NASA, a repair kit that could allow spacewalking astronauts to repair damage to the wings or body of the shuttle is still two years away from being completed.
Discovery was scheduled to be rolled out today, but NASA engineers detected a crack in the external fuel tank. This does not bode well for NASA's over-aggressive schedule to launch the shuttle and get the shuttle program back on track. After some delay, the engineers decided to continue the roll-out despite the "inperfections" in the tank.
The shuttle design has not been altered so that it deflects foam coming off the external fuel tank at 500 mph; the external tank has not been altered enough either. It's a disaster waiting to occur again. It's amazing that the Columbia disaster didn't happen long before it did. Two hundred changes have been made, but they're still worried about the foam problem.
NASA should slow things down and get the problems fixed properly.
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