Using Pork Barrel Engineering ManDated by Cracker Barrel Bureaucrat$

NASA grounds future shuttle flights
Foam insulation flew off fuel tank but did not hit Discovery

The shuttle Discovery, like Columbia, lost a large chunk of foam debris during liftoff that could have threatened the return of the seven astronauts, NASA said Wednesday.

While there are no signs the piece of insulation damaged the spacecraft, NASA is grounding future shuttle flights until the hazard can be fixed.

“Call it luck or whatever, it didn’t harm the orbiter,” said shuttle program manager Bill Parsons. If the foam had broken away earlier in flight — when the atmosphere is thicker, increasing the acceleration and likelihood of impact — it could have caused catastrophic damage to Discovery...

Again, Bu$hCo demonstrates its willingness to use the lives of the most dedicated Americans like they were toilet paper. I hope they make it back down in one piece. I most sincerely hope the Wrepublicans aren't in control when the next manned moon or Mars mission is sent.

They'll never make it back alive with all the pork barrel engineering. If it's not Star Wars or a Kool DARPA toy, the man in charge of NASA now isn't interested in it. We're talking about a man who invested money for the CIA and headed the corporation that owns DynCorp before he became the head of NASA.

When NeoCon spooks get physical, they tend to ignore reality-based science in favor of their own political agenda- like Bu$hCo's current public relations blitz for it's new manned space policy.

Like Porter Goss in the CIA, Michael Griffin is turning NASA upside-down getting rid of competent professionals and replacing them with more right thinking people.

Of course, when 20 year old fuel gauges break down for "unknown" reasons, Michael Griffin's new professionals in charge don't let that stop them. They have a time table. While reality-based engineers are dealing with problems, they're making up whole new realities for the engineers to deal with.

Besides, Darth Rumsfeld has this thing about people who report failure.