NASA has grounded the space shuttle fleet indefinitely after it was discovered that foam broke off the shuttle Discovery shortly after it blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Luckily it appears that the foam did not strike the Discovery.
If the entire shuttle fleet is grounded indefinitely, how will NASA mount a rescue mission if the crew of the Discovery has to abandon ship in orbit? One scenario was that if a space shuttle was damaged enough that it couldn't re-enter Earth's atmosphere without being destroyed, the crew would leave the shuttle in orbit and wait for another shuttle to be launched to bring them home.
NASA did not do what it was supposed to do and fix ALL the problems that resulted in the destruction of the Columbia. It did reinforce the wings but did not fix the external fuel tank where the foam came off on both shuttles.
This is what happens when an over-aggressive launch schedule overrides all other concerns.
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