Word: fleetly
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...years and $1.5 billion or more, it is not clear what has been accomplished." REPORT by an independent task force monitoring NASA's improvements in space shuttle safety after the 2003 Columbia disaster; the fleet has been grounded until 2006 following the incident-plagued Discovery mission earlier this month...
Only hours before the docking, NASA announced that the entire shuttle fleet was being grounded again, after evidence that four pieces of insulating foam--the largest the size of a skateboard--had spun off the ship's external fuel tank during lift-off, just the kind of debris that damaged Columbia's wing and doomed the ship. Only one small piece may have struck the shuttle this time, glancing off a wing with so little force it didn't register on impact sensors. But a camera mounted on the shuttle's 50-ft. arm as well as photos taken from...
...larger question may not be the fate of Discovery but that of the whole fleet. After 2 ½ years and $1 billion spent on safety upgrades designed to prevent just such a setback, how could things go so wrong again? Can a program that has already claimed the lives of 14 astronauts ever be safe? And what does any of that say about the Bush Administration's dream of sending crews to the moon and Mars...
...that reason, Griffin wants to decommission the fleet in 2010, meeting the U.S.'s commitment to its international partners to complete the space station, and nothing more. But the shuttle also means jobs--many in politically pivotal Florida--and that gives it a lot of support. In July, House Democrats negotiated a provision out of a budget bill that would have codified the 2010 deadline. And Science Committee chairman Representative Sherwood Boehlert of New York remains a loyal shuttle supporter. "Nothing is in jeopardy except the schedule," he said...
...entry vehicle aboard, and both the U.S. and Russia have the wherewithal to go fetch them if that should fail. But once they're gone, will anyone be back? The space station can't operate without the shuttle to service it, and with 40% of the tiny shuttle fleet--not to mention 14 lives--now claimed by explosions, it may become indefensible to fly the ship...