After a week of formal inquiry, NASA said there would be no quick fix for the foam problem on the external fuel tank that grounded the U.S. shuttle fleet.
William H. Gerstenmaier, the head of the investigation and manager of the international space station program, said the inquiry found for no obvious cause for the five pieces of foam that popped off the external fuel tank during the July 26 launch of Discovery, the New York Times reported Friday.
NASA has suspended all shuttle flights until the problem with the foam – used to prevent ice accumulation on the superchilled tank – is solved.
The space agency has spent some $1 billion on shuttle safety improvements including redesigning the external tank to reduce foam loss in the 2 1/2 years since the shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry Feb. 1, 2003.
