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Shuttle Launch Set to Go Ahead

Despite misgivings by the chief safety officer of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Space Shuttle Discovery is set for launch on July 1, 2006. NASA?s chief safety officer Bryan O?Connor said that ?it?s a done deal?, and that his objections were not meant to delay the launch of Discovery. The U.S. space program has been suffering since the 2003 breakup of the shuttle Columbia, which claimed the lives of seven astronauts as it re-entered the Earth?s atmosphere due to a hole punched in one of the wings by foam which had fallen off of the External Fuel Tank during liftoff.

A launch of the space shuttle last summer also had an insulating foam problem during liftoff, which delayed the launch of another shuttle mission until this year. During a flight-readiness meeting, safety officer O?Connor and NASA Chief Engineer Christopher Scolese voted against a launch out of principle, but did not pursue the issue any further with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

Such a private appeal could have led to the delay or scrapping of Discovery?s launch this July. Ten years ago, O?Connor quit as chief of the space shuttle program over changes which he said would endanger crew safety. He said that his disagreement over and objections to the Discovery launch on July 1 ?wasn`t anywhere close to? the kind of worrisome feelings he had then.