Posted 5/01/2005 01:34:00 PM by Douglas

STS-107 was brought down by two regrettably unforeseen events: A foam strike on the wing leading edge and bad management. But both of these unfortunate events were one in a million, and March, 2003, could have seen STS-114 become just another routine shuttle mission, devoid of any media attention. Sadly, it didn't, and now almost two and a half years later, NASA isn't quite done with the hand wringing.

NASA delayed the launch window of space shuttle Discovery -- set to be the first shuttle to fly since the 2003 Columbia disaster -- from late May to at least July.

The postponement allows engineers to take steps to prevent ice from potentially damaging the shuttle on takeoff.

Modifications on the Discovery have mitigated ice formation "by about 70 percent," said Griffin. "The problem is that remaining 30 percent. And we've just elected at this time to say, 'Time to call a halt, fix it, and we'll take the six-week delay.'"

In addition, NASA had received additional data that required further analysis, said Griffin. The extra time would allow engineers "to make absolutely sure, as sure as we could be, that, in the common phrase, 'All the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed,'" Griffin said.

First off, engineers aren't ever "absolutely sure" about anything, and we're not talking about building an overpass with a safety factor of 8.9. This is space travel, and there are always going to be risks and contingencies that no one ever thought of (see also: Apolo 13.) But he goes on:

"If we had tried to launch in May, we simply wouldn't have had the time to analyze all that data as fully as we would like ... Part of what that six weeks is buying us is some additional time to go through some really very late-breaking information that we need to look at to certify the safety of the orbiter."

What late breaking data? This vehicle has flown successfully 113 times in the past, so what the hell else could be done to make it any safer than it was before?

"We're going to return to flight. We're not going to rush to flight," said Griffin, who took over as NASA's boss on April 14.

Rush? What an interesting choice of words.

If this management team was in charge of Orville and Wilbur, they'd still be sitting on a hill in Kitty Hawk waiting for the right winds.

Light that sucker!!