spacetoday.net: NASA denies loosening shuttle safety

Posted: Sat, Apr 23, 2005, 11:29 AM ET (1529 GMT)
STS-114: rollout (NASA/KSC)

NASA shuttle managers said Friday that they are not compromising the safety of the space shuttle by adjusting standards of risk of damage to the orbiter. NASA officials, in a telephone conference with reporters late Friday, said that any changes that they are making are designed to make the risk evaluation process more rigorous than ever, and not to make it easier to approve the shuttle to fly again. The agency was responding to an article in Friday's New York Times, which claimed that some agency employees were concerned about changes in the standards for damage to the shuttle's leading edge panels from falling debris. Shuttle managers insisted that safety remained their top priority and that there will be "no cutting corners" on safety during the return-to-flight preparations.