NASA ponders second repair in space, CNN
“I think in the old days we would not have worried about this nearly so much,” The Associated Press quoted Hale as saying. “I am very hopeful that we will be able to put this issue at rest.”
More falling foam puts shuttle programme in serious doubt, Nature (subscription)
“Doug Osheroff, a physicist at Stanford University in California, and a member of the CAIB, agrees that small tweaks won’t help much, but major changes could take years. “We clearly don’t understand all the mechanisms for foam shedding,” he says. The best way for NASA to quickly reduce the risk to the shuttle crew is to fly with fewer people, Osheroff says. “There’s no reason to go up with seven astronauts.”
Editor’s note: Gee, that’s certainly a goofy solution: i.e., in a worst case scenario, it is better to risk killing a smaller crew instead of killing a crew of 7. This does nothing to address the threat of people being killed in the first place – which is what I understand NASA is trying to do.
