UntitledCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- NASA is still struggling to develop a means to inspect and repair any space shuttle gashes in orbit _ a hurdle that could prevent flights from resuming next spring, an oversight panel said Wednesday.
The biggest challenge involves a 15-meter (50-foot) inspection boom that has been under development for months.
Richard Covey, a former astronaut in charge of the return-to-flight task force, said the schedule for solving the problem is tight, and launches may have to be postponed, unless an alternative to the boom is found.
The task force was created to evaluate whether NASA is meeting the recommendations set forth by investigators examining last year's Columbia space shuttle disaster.
Wednesday's interim report said NASA still faces "enormous challenges" and needs to narrow its inspection-and-repair options soon and start focusing on the best alternatives.
Earlier this year, NASA postponed the first post-Columbia shuttle launch from this fall to next March, at the earliest, in part to give the agency more time to solve the inspection-and-repair problem and also find a way to stop insulating foam from falling off the spaceship at liftoff.
NASA could consider holding off on the boom and instead use spacewalkers on the next flight to check for damage under the shuttle wings or on the belly, Covey said. The extra spacewalks would take valuable time from the mission, however, and pose additional risk to the crew.
If the shuttle could not be repaired by the spacewalkers, the astronauts would move into the international space station until a rescue ship could be launched. That would save the crew, but not necessarily the damaged shuttle.
The proposed inspection boom would add another 15 meters (50 feet) to the shuttle's 15-meter (50-foot) robot arm, and could reach most if not all of the thermal protective layer on the ship's underside.
A set of sensors and lasers on the end would hunt for any holes or cracks, and the astronauts might be able to stand on the end of the boom to make repairs.
The major technical hurdles include adapting the sensors for use with the boom, developing the necessary software, combining the hardware with the software, and making the boom stable enough to stand on.
Eliminating dangerous launch debris -- like the chunk of fuel-tank foam that pierced Columbia's left wing -- is another critical issue that has yet to be solved, the report said.
Columbia shattered over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
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