NASA Delays Next Shuttle Launch

According to news reports published yesterday, NASA has decided to postpone the next launch of the Shuttle to March, 2006. NASA has also decided to fly the Discovery again in lieu of Atlantis as had been previously planned.

The date was announced on the same day that NASA received scathing criticism from an oversight committee minority report on its performance in repairing the Shuttle system since the loss of the Columbia in 2003. Although individual statements by committee chairpersons were more positive and the majority report released in June found that NASA had substantially reduced flight risks, the minority statement castigated the space agency for having made the same mistakes since the Columbia accident that led up to the February, 2003 disaster.

The rationale given for the launch delay was that NASA needed a "conservative" timeframe in to investigate the causes of and presumably repair problems with the Shuttle's External Tank, which had lost an alarming quantity of foam during the last launch, including a particular chunk weighing about a pound that fell off when Discovery was relatively high in the atmosphere. The destruction of Columbia was traced to a falling chunk of foam of similar size that punctured the ship's wing nearer to its launch, allowing hot gases to enter the vehicle during its re-entry.

Sources consulted: Radio, television, and Internet news reports.