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Poised for Liftoff Space Shuttle Discovery rests in full view on the launch pad. Image above: The rolling back of Launch Pad 39B's Rotating Service Structure reveals orbiter Discovery. + Click for larger image. Image credit: NASA/KSC Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-114, NASA's Return to Flight mission, is set for Tuesday at 10:39 a.m. EDT. The launch pad's Rotating Service Structure (RSS) was rolled away from Discovery at 3:38 p.m. on Monday. When in place, the giant enveloping appendage is used to install payloads into an orbiter's cargo bay and provide protection from inclement weather. With the...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA (news - web sites) has met two more recommendations that are required for the space agency to return to flight, but remains stymied on inspection and repair methods for shuttles in orbit. Inspection and repair, along with the elimination of fuel-tank foam shedding, are the most technically challenging issues facing NASA as it aims for a spring 2005 launch, the head of an oversight panel said Thursday. Despite the lingering hurdles, there is no reason to believe shuttle flights won't resume next March or April, said Richard Covey, a former shuttle commander who is chairman...

WASHINGTON, May 19 - The difficulty of developing an in-flight inspection and repair system may force NASA to consider alternative approaches if it wants to resume flying the space shuttle next spring, an oversight group said Wednesday.The return-to-flight task force monitoring NASA's progress in complying with recommendations from the board that investigated the Columbia disaster said inspecting shuttles after launching and fixing any damage "present enormous challenges" that could force the agency to look at alternative approaches.In issuing a progress report, the task force - headed by two former astronauts, Thomas P. Stafford and Richard O. Covey - said the...

NASA (news - web sites) released today a status report on safely returning space shuttles to flight. Presently, the space agency has a shuttle liftoff slated for no earlier than March 2005. Called NASA's Implementation Plan for Space Shuttle Return to Flight and Beyond, the report is putting into action the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) recommendations after the tragic loss of the seven-person crew and craft on February 1, 2003 during atmospheric reentry. NASA's just issued plan points out that considerable progress has been made in the past months in the agency's return to flight efforts and to make...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a year after the Columbia disaster, NASA (news - web sites) is only beginning the sweeping changes recommended as conditions for the space shuttles' return to flight, an independent task group reported on Tuesday. "Detailed plans for many of the recommendations have not been forthcoming," the group said in an interim report. "NASA has not been timely in some of their responses to task group requests for information." The independent panel, called the Return to Flight Task Group, was charged with monitoring NASA's progress in complying with recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which probed...