WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S.
astronauts will blast back into space in a matter of weeks, the head of NASA
said Tuesday, despite a new, critical report questioning the safety of this
exploration.
The optimistic assessment
from NASA administrator Michael Griffin came after a task force review said
Monday that the agency failed to meet key safety recommendations the came about
as a result of the Columbia tragedy.
"We look like we're in
pretty good shape. ... Based on what I know now, we're ready to go,'' Griffin told
the House Science Committee.
Top shuttle managers are
conducting a flight readiness review this week in hopes of launching the
shuttle Discovery as early as July 13, the first mission since Columbia broke
apart during re-entry on Feb 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
A task force formed after
the accident held its final meeting Monday night, and concluded that the space
agency still does not fully comply with three of the toughest recommendations
that accident investigators made in 2003.
The task force determined
that NASA has put off long-term improvements to the shuttle's thermal
shielding, thus failing to improve its ability to make emergency repairs in
space. But the group also acknowledged that delaying a summer launch a few
months would not significantly reduce the risks of such space flight.
Columbia crashed after a
suitcase-sized chunk of insulating foam tore off its external fuel tank during
liftoff and pierced the left wing, damage that proved fatal when the spaceship
returned to Earth's atmosphere.
The shuttle program's
planned return to space in May was scrubbed over concerns about possible ice
buildup on a fuel tank.
Griffin, the agency's 11th
administrator, was greeted warmly by lawmakers who warned him that NASA faces
tough decisions ahead on how to balance its long-term plans of retiring the
space shuttles, conducting further work on the international space station,
creating a new manned space mission vehicle and beginning the work on a mission
to Mars.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert,
R-N.Y., said the agency was "pretty much flying blind right now.''
"NASA can barely give a
definitive answer to a single question about its programs. That is not, believe
it or not, a criticism,'' said Boehlert.
Aside from the scientific and
budgetary challenges facing NASA, the lawmakers also wrestled with a looming
geopolitical roadblock to U.S.-Russia cooperation on the International Space
Station.
The Iran Non-Proliferation
Act would effectively bar U.S. astronauts from staying on the space station
after April of next year. The bill, passed in 2000, had aimed to prevent Russia
from helping Iran expand its nascent nuclear program.
The measure has clearly
failed, said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who blamed both the previous and current administrations
for not making effective overtures to the Iranians.
"It was a worthy effort at
the time,'' Rohrabacher, R-Calif, said of the law. "The strategy has, however,
not worked.''
Both NASA and the State
Department now support an amendment that would allow the U.S. to maintain its
involvement with the space station. If such an amendment is not passed by
Congress, the only U.S. involvement with the space station would be when a U.S.
vessel is actually docked there.
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