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Fourth of July Shuttle Launch in Doubt

The launch of the space shuttle Discovery has already been delayed by inclement weather conditions twice, and now the ?discovery? of a crack in the external fuel tank foam has brought the Fourth of July?s rescheduled launch into doubt as well. Having taken its first flight in 1981, the space shuttle program has seen two major tragedies ? the breakup a little over seventy seconds after the launch of the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986, and the breakup upon re-entry of the space shuttle Columbia (the first shuttle to launch in April 1981) over Texas in February 2003.

The Challenger tragedy was blamed on faulty ?o-rings? on the solid rocket boosters (SRBs), which had not been adapted properly to the extremely cold weather conditions and which doomed the shuttle. The Columbia accident was caused actually during the launch, when a peace of the foam (once again in question) gouged a small yet significantly sized hole in a wing that allowed super-heated gases to enter the shuttle as it re-entered Earth?s atmosphere at extremely high speeds.

If the Discovery shuttle launch is completely scrubbed, it could be the final nail in the coffin for the NASA vehicle program. Originally slated to last until 2010, the loss of two shuttles and skyrocketing costs (as well as a loss of public interest) may simply cause America?s space agency to cut its losses and invest in the new space vehicle designs and the plan of President George W. Bush to send Americans to Mars.