The long-awaited launch of the space shuttle Discovery was put off after a faulty fuel gauge showed that the fully-fueled hydrogen tank was empty.
The engineers decided to put the launch on indefinite hold today. They had hoped to make a Sunday launch window, but their troubleshooting is not going as quickly as they had hoped.
This is actually good news.
The shuttle is NOT ready to fly. They've done some modifications to the tank to prevent ice and foam from coming off as the shuttle blasts off, but they've done nothing to reinforce vulnerable parts of the shuttle that cannot withstand a high-velocity impact from a one or two pound object. The wings can still be blown full of holes from impacts like the one that tore a hole in Columbia's left wing.
In addition, NASA has not come up with a shuttle patch to be used in space if the shuttle gets damaged the way the Columbia was.
Now there's talk that if they will launch the Discovery even if they cannot find the problem with the fuel tank gauge. Wrong answer.
NASA should not allow an over-aggressive launch schedule to override their better judgment. If they can't find the problem, the entire tank should be replaced as well as the affected sensors. If that will take too much time, perhaps they should launch the Endeavor or the Atlantis instead. That will take even more time as both shuttles are undergoing refits. If a bird is too wounded to fly, why are they not keeping it on the ground?
They need to do this right; if they lose the Discovery, the ramifications would be severe, and a major disaster for another shuttle crew and their families. The shuttle program doesn't need another shuttle to be destroyed due to lax standards.
Lax standards and shortcuts have led to two space shuttles being lost. That's two too many.
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