NASA experts are telling the press that the shuttle program may be terminated before 2010 (when the 25-year-old fleet is scheduled to retire) if Discovery suffers any setbacks during its flight.

One does not want to be pessimistic, but even laymen who sometimes read press reports understand that the world's first shuttle fleet has become extremely vulnerable.

Although NASA has done a lot to promptly analyze and eliminate the causes of the Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia disaster, it is obvious that the insulating foam on the troublesome external tank still poses a major problem.

One should praise the courage of NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who decided to go ahead with the launch despite objections from his own staff.

NASA chief safety officer Bryan O'Connor and chief engineer Christopher Scolese had called for a delay to the Discovery launch to redesign the foam on the fuel tank; that insulating foam was the main cause of the 2003 shuttle disaster.

Griffin defended his controversial decision and told The Washington Post that any further delay would have led to a tighter launch schedule for the ISS program. NASA plans to fly 16 missions involving the three remaining shuttles to the ISS and one mission to repair the Hubble orbital telescope by 2010.

It seems that Griffin has chosen the lesser of two evils, but the worn-out shuttles face serious accident risks regardless of this launch schedule, a fact The Washington Post has called inexcusable. U.S. space experts say the odds are a hundred to one that the Discovery crew may get killed; previously, such odds did not exceed 7,000 to one.

One does not want to seriously criticize America's inner striving to complete the space shuttle program as soon as possible because remaining shuttle flights to the ISS largely aim to assist their Russian partners, who have been implementing this unique manned space program single-handedly since 2003.

It appears that the U.S.'s long-term space plans no longer depend on shuttle missions. On June 30, Congress refused to suspend preparations for expeditions to the Moon and Mars and said America was a nation of pathfinders. The United States should not only explore the red planet but reach for other stars as well.

And those former "stars" no longer shine on the horizon.

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