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Joe Barton (R) Ennis, Texas on FOX 4 saying we should not put the space program on hold. He's NASA space science sub committee member. Says next generation shuttles may be the answer to accidents like this; once this accident is investigated. "Receptive to funding a new generation of shuttles." Will temporarily ground all shuttles, then retrieve the men on the space station.

I'm heartsick about this news.
I do not see how we can take along hiatus from shuttle flights as we did after the challenger disaster. NASA will have to come to some conclusions fairly quickly and accept some level of risk before the investigation of this incident is completed because this time we have a funtioning international space station which requires the use of the shuttle for it's continuation.

Even if we wanted to suspend, we would still have to launch at least one more time just to pick those on the station up, and I think our level of committment to that program will drive us to continue on as quickly as possible. [Not to mention the military uses of the shuttle which are not spoken about much but are much greater than they were at the time of challenger.]