Editorial: Rush to flight?

Thursday, June 29, 2006 | 7:44 a.m.

NASA plans to launch the space shuttle Discovery on July 1, despite concerns of two top administrators - chief safety officer Bryan O'Connor and chief engineer Chris Scolese. The two said that the mission should be delayed until engineers can redesign insulation on foam brackets that could fly off during launch.

The two subsequently have downplayed their objections, saying that they accept NASA Administrator Michael Griffin's decision to go ahead. The shuttle will be headed to the international space station, and Griffin noted that the crew could either repair the foam damage or await an emergency rescue if Discovery is truly too unsafe to return. O'Connor and Scolese have said they accept that, too.

Still, the two made a specific point of not signing the mission's certificate of flight readiness until they crossed out the verbiage, "I concur with proceeding with this mission," and wrote in "no-go."

The foam risk has been meticulously examined and thoroughly debated inside NASA, with a number of shuttle officials concerned about a July flight. O'Connor and Scolese have suggested they could agree with Griffin that any damage from falling foam that occurs during takeoff actually poses more of a danger to the spacecraft on re-entry. Griffin believes that any damage during liftoff could be fixed at the space station before the shuttle returns to Earth.

But damage to the shuttle increases risk to the spacecraft and crew at any time. Damage can also throw a carefully synchronized mission out of whack, requiring unscheduled maintenance - or even a rescue flight.

NASA officials are supposed to be risk assessment experts. We trust that they know best how the foam issue affects risk to the crew. And no one suffered more through the loss of the shuttles Challenger and Columbia than the NASA family.

And yet. With those tragedies seared in our brains, and the fresh memory of more foam problems last July during NASA's first post-Columbia mission, we ask: Is rushing this mission worth it? Given the red flag raised by two of NASA's top safety officials, we have concerns that it is not.