Wing panel defects could delay Discovery launch

A safety group chartered after the 2003 Columbia accident is recommending NASA replace three wing panels on Discovery, a move that would force the agency to roll the shuttle back to its hangar and delay its upcoming mission by at least a couple of months.

Slight defects in the composite carbon panels could allow hot gasses to burn through the wing, potentially leading to damage that could doom the Discovery during atmospheric reentry, the safety group says.

In a shuttle program meeting at Kennedy Space Center today, the NASA Safety and Engineering Center group said NASA "should change these three panels rather than take the risk," said Kyle Herring, a spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

A separate group of shuttle engineers who specialize in wing leading edge systems said the small cracks in the panels would not jeopardize the Discovery astronauts and recommended NASA proceed with the planned launch, now scheduled to blast off on Oct. 23.

The issue will be taken up again next Tuesday during a traditional Flight Readiness Review at KSC.

A decision to replace the panels would force NASA to roll the shuttle back from launch pad 39A and perform the change-out in an orbiter processing facility. That work likely would push the launch back two months or more.