Posted: Thu, Aug 28, 2003, 7:04 PM ET (2304 GMT)
The director of the External Tank Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has been reassigned and will soon retire, Marshall officials confirmed this week. Jerry Smelser was reassigned from his post earlier this summer, Marshall director Dave King said Wednesday. Smelser is now an advisor to the shuttle programs office and is expected to retire later this year. Foam falling from the external tank was identified as the physical cause of the shuttle Columbia accident according to the investigation's final report published on Tuesday. King noted that Smelser had briefed shuttle managers after the STS-112 launch in October, where falling foam from the same area of the external tank had been noted, and said that the foam posed no added risk to launch. That conclusion, King said, was based in part on incorrect information that had been used as "an honest mistake."

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