NASA checks crack in shuttle foam insulation

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA inspectors found a
crack in the foam insulation of space shuttle Discovery’s fuel
tank and managers met on Monday to decide how the crack might
affect Tuesday’s launch.

“It’s in the insulation near a bracket on the external fuel
tank,” a NASA spokeswoman said.

Scheduled launches on Saturday and Sunday were scrubbed
because of bad weather and the discovery of the crack could
delay the launch again because of fears that falling foam
insulation could cause a repeat of the 2003 Columbia disaster.
The crack was found during a routine overnight inspection.

NASA is trying to send Discovery on a make-or-break mission
to the International Space Station. It would be just the second
shuttle launch since the destruction of Columbia and the deaths
of seven crew, an accident caused by falling foam that damaged
the spacecraft’s delicate heat shield.

Foam still is expected to fall off during launch, even
though NASA has spent $1.3 billion in the past three years to
attempt to fix the problem and to make safety upgrades to the
shuttle.

Discovery is scheduled for retirement in 2010 and another
major problem on this mission could bring a premature end to
the shuttle program. That would leave the $100 billion space
station, a multi-nation project, unfinished.

NASA had planned to go ahead with the shuttle mission
despite the objections of senior NASA safety and technical
officers, who wanted more time to fix insulation foam on the
fuel tank.

The space agency says the crew is not necessarily at risk
because of a plan to have them hole up in the space station if
they find that Discovery’s heat resistant tiles have been
damaged. The damaged ship, meanwhile, could be flown back
without a crew.

Among the 2 tons of cargo the shuttle will be toting to the
International Space Station is a set of cables that could be
used to hot-wire a shuttle so it can be remotely controlled.

The U.S. space agency doesn’t want to abandon the $2
billion spaceship. Nor does it want the shuttle to return
unguided through Earth’s atmosphere and possibly crash in a
populated area.

“The one thing we’re not going to do is put a dead orbiter
out into space to just fall where it may,” said John Shannon,
the deputy space shuttle program manager.