Stafford-Covey Group Finding Probably Won't Cause Launch Delay

Just three weeks before the space shuttles' Return to Flight, a NASA advisory group says the space agency has failed to address three critical safety issues: eliminating critical launch debris, harden the shuttle against debris impact and figure out a way to repair the orbiter's heat shield in orbit.

"[The] recommendations have words in there that say 'thou shall do this,' " panel member Joseph Cuzzupoli said, quoted by the Orlando Sentinel. "They [NASA] have not answered per the words.... But from an operational readiness to fly, the data they presented to us so far says it's safe to fly."

Panel members, led by former astronauts Thomas Stafford and Richard Covey, spoke Monday after their final meeting -- the culmination of two years' work on safety improvements in the wake of the Columbia disaster. The task force was split in its opinion, however. Its findings are not binding upon NASA and are not expected to delay the July 13th launch of Discovery on the first shuttle mission since the February 1st, 2003, Columbia disintegration.

"As an engineer, I know that a vigorous discussion of these complex issues can make us smarter," NASA Administrator Griffin said in a prepared statement Monday. "I anticipate, and expect, a healthy debate in our upcoming Flight Readiness Review."

That review takes place on Thursday and is expected to clear the way for Discovery's launch next month.

"We found that NASA fell short of meeting that recommendation, although they had put forth a yeoman's effort in coming up with all of the options they could conceive of," panel member James Adamson told reporters. "We have said that NASA has not eliminated all critical debris. While that's true, we also say they have significantly reduced debris, and we are very convinced that while they may not have fully met the [recommendation's] intent as we have defined it, they have significantly improved on all of these things."

A separate safety review centered on debris mitigation last week deemed the effort "acceptable."

NASA engineers have decided not to research a way to harden the space plane's carbon-carbon heat tiles against debris impact. Instead, they plan to retire the surviving shuttle fleet by 2010.

"You can't legislate that people should be smart," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told the Sentinel Monday. "We have spent a goodly sum of money, many millions of dollars, trying to figure out how to do this, and we've not yet been successful. It's a very difficult technical problem."

FMI: www.nasa.gov