for rescue. This is the only reason the NASA safety chief didn't appeal, or resign in protest, over the July 1 launch go-ahead, to which he objected. This entire article is worth reading. It sounds like typical Bush-style "governance" in operation at NASA.
Discovery is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center on July 1.
CNN/AP: Safety chief: Shuttle launch 'a done deal'
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA's top safety official objected to the agency's decision to press ahead with the launch of Discovery next month without fixing a potentially catastrophic foam-shedding problem, but said he won't appeal -- and won't resign in protest -- because he does not believe the shuttle astronauts' lives are in danger.
"It's a done deal," chief safety officer Bryan O'Connor said in a Monday night interview with The Associated Press.
O'Connor, a former shuttle commander, said he was uncomfortable with going ahead with the launch on July 1 but accepted the decision because NASA has plans in place to have the crew take refuge in the international space station and wait for a rescue mission if foam punches too big a hole in the shuttle's heat protection system.
He and shuttle program manager Wayne Hale, who have spent decades in the program, said they could not recall a previous instance in which a launch proceeded over the objections of the safety office....
***
On Tuesday, NASA released a copy of the Certificate of Flight Readiness for Discovery. On the document, (NASA Chief Engineer Christopher Scolese) and O'Connor crossed out sections where it says they concur with the decision to launch. They wrote out their objections by hand....
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/06/21/shuttle.safety.ap/index.html