NASA announced that the Discovery shuttle will launch on July 1 (3:48:15 p.m. EDT) despite the No-Go opinion of two senior officials. “There were many different viewpoints on the issue of whether we are ready to fly or not,” said NASA chief Michael Griffin. “We’ve decided that we are.” The two officials did not object to the agreed launch date.

The decision came after two days of “intensive and spirited exchange” during a Flight Readiness Review for NASA’s STS-121 shuttle flight aboard the Discovery orbiter. The two dissenting senior NASA managers – chief engineer Chris Scolese and Bryan O’Conner, the associate administrator of Safety and Mission Assurance – did have concerns over the potential risk of foam debris posed by a number of insulated ice frost ramps along Discovery’s external tank. 

A one-pound piece of foam insulation fell from a protective ramp from Discovery’s external tank during the STS-114 launch in July 2005. While it did not strike Discovery, a similar foam shedding event pierced Columbia's heat shield ultimately leading to its destruction and loss of seven astronauts in 2003.

NASA’s ability to inspect the spacecraft in orbit, conduct basic repairs, and keep the shuttle astronauts safely aboard the International Space Station (ISS) until a rescue comes contributed to the positive launch decision.

NASA managers picked July 1 as the launch date of space shuttle Discovery, despite recommendations against a lift-off from the agency's chief engineer. The flight is the second shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

Representatives from NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and the Office of the Chief Engineer have advised against flying until further design changes are made to the shuttle's external fuel tank. It has been debated whether the external tank should undergo further changes in 34 areas called ice-frost ramps. In last July's launch, there was a one-pound chunk of foam that fell off from the Discovery. Since then, about 35 pounds of foam have been removed.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin made the final decision and vowed to shut down the space shuttle program should they lose another vehicle. Griffin is confident that the decision to fly poses no risk to the seven astronauts because NASA has devised new inspection and repair techniques to the shuttle. As a last resort the astronauts could stay at the International Space Station until a rescue shuttle arrives.

NASA's shuttles are scheduled to be grounded in 2010, once the International Space Station is constructed. Setting a launch date beyond July might cause schedule pressure in three or four years for completing the station.

Griffin said, I don't want to get us into a situation where by being more cautious than I think technically is necessary today, we wind up having to execute six flights in the last year. That's not smart.

NASA's Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale will be available to media live via satellite from 7 to 9 a.m. EDT on June 20, to discuss the current status of the program and the next shuttle mission, STS-121.

Hale has overall responsibility for the program's safe conduct. He joined the Space Shuttle Program as deputy manager after the the shuttle Columbia accident. He spearheaded the restructuring of the team to ensure all levels of expertise have input into problem solving, especially on issues on safety.

The Discovery is targeted to be launched to the International Space on July 1, but could extend until July 19. In the 12-day mission, the crew will test new hardware and techniques to improve shuttle safety, deliver supplies, make repairs, and bring a third crew member to the station.

The interviews will be carried live on the NASA TV Media Channel and analog satellite. The analog coordinates are: AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 5C, 3800 MHz, vertical polarization, with audio at 6.8 MHz. The Media Channel is available on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal via satellite AMC-6, 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. In Alaska and Hawaii, it's on AMC-7, 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization.

NASA will host its traditional post-Flight Readiness Review news conference on Saturday, June 17, (no later than 2pm EDT) to announce key decisions about Discovery's mission, STS-121. The conference, to be aired live on NASA TV, will include the selection of an official launch date. The NASA officials who will attend the briefing from the Kennedy Space Center include:

• Michael Griffin, NASA Administrator
• Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations
• Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Program manager
• Mike Leinbach, NASA launch director

The news conference follows a two-day detailed assessment of the readiness of Space Shuttle Discovery for launch to be conducted on June 16 and 17. The specific start time of the news conference is dependent on the meeting's conclusion.

Three weeks from now, NASA will be launching space shuttle Discovery and an astronaut crew into space in the STS-121 mission. This is another attempt by the agency to save its ailing and aging shuttle program. Blastoff is scheduled for July 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Central Florida, though the launch window can remain open until July 19.

Space engineers have been busy prepping the Discovery and ensuring that the tragedy of Columbia will never happen again. The engineers have made sure that there are no foam debris in Discovery and they recently discovered a faulty electrical box that they are working on. If you would recall, an almost 2 pounds of foam debris in the heat shield caused the untimely demise of the shuttle Columbia and its crew.

But still, they offer no assurance even if they are backed by twenty-five years of flight experience. Four years before the program is scheduled to end, NASA officials still consider the shuttle an "experimental vehicle." According to Wayne Hale, NASA's shuttle program manager, "this is a risky vehicle to fly...There are a number of things that can cause a bad outcome with this vehicle. What we have done is...try to reduce the risk."

Two years and $1.5 billion in modifications later, NASA launched Discovery last summer, only to discover that large chunks of foam again peeled away from the tank. That crew landed safely, but only pure luck prevented another accident, engineers said. "We have made the largest aerodynamic change to this tank that we have ever made since we began flying 25 years ago," Hale said.

If, God forbid, another major incident occur, NASA's run might just come to an end. According to John Logsdon, one of the members of the board that investigated the Columbia tragedy and director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University - "another major incident would probably lead to the [permanent] grounding of the fleet".

Even amidst unsure and risky scenarios, Discovery's astronauts said they still have faith in the shuttle and in NASA engineers. STS-121 mission specialist Lisa Nowak said, "it's been a long wait, but it's worth the wait...I feel that we're prepared and ready to go." We wish them all the luck in the world, they will surely need it.

Foam debris from the external fuel tank has been a major concern for NASA since the Columbia accident. Major changes had to be made resulting to the flight's delay. “We believe we have made significant improvements since last year in the elimination of many of the hazards from foam,” said shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.

Although this doesn't mean that the foam coming off of the external tank is completely eliminated, it has significantly reduced the hazards of it popping free from the fuel tank and striking the orbiter during flight.

In the past, foam pieces as large as 0.09 pounds (1.44 ounces) have been seen falling from ice frost ramps, but wind tunnel and other tests by engineers suggest larger pieces of up to 0.2 pounds (or 3.2 ounces) could shake loose during flight.

“I don’t really see it as an issue for us,” said Michael Leinbach, NASA’s launch director, adding that the glitch is relatively minor. "We’ve got the best in the world working on it.” Discovery's launch is set on July 1, 2006.

Assembly for NASA's shuttle Atlantis will begin next week for its scheduled launch on August 28 to resume construction of the half-built International Space Station and also as a contingency plan should there be problems during a test flight aboard Discovery in July.

Work will begin in high bay 3 of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building, starting with stacking two solid rocket boosters on a mobile launcher platform and is to be rolled from a nearby hangar into the 52-story assembly building by July 25th.

The astronauts who will man the mission will be at KSC for a practice countdown Aug. 8. The crew includes commander Brent Jett, pilot Chris Ferguson and four mission specialists: Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Canadian Steve MacLean.