Shuttle sensors still in question

Three months before NASA hopes to relaunch the space shuttle, it cannot say for sure that its new sensors will be able to detect potentially fatal damage to the craft in orbit.

Three months before NASA hopes to relaunch the space shuttle, it cannot say for sure that its new sensors will be able to detect potentially fatal damage to the craft in orbit. Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on February 1, 2003, killing the crew of seven, because damage went unseen during its mission.

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New sensors for inspecting the craft are among key safety improvements called for after the Columbia disaster. William Readdy, NASA's chief of space operations, said the first shuttle mission since the Columbia accident was scheduled for May 15. Readdy was not asked about the uncertainty over inspections and other tasks that must be completed before launch. But he said he saw no major obstacles to sending the shuttle back to space that couldn't be overcome.

And Charles Camarda, an astronaut on the upcoming flight, said he thought questions about the inspection would be answered, although perhaps not until the last minute.

As recently as mid-December, NASA said the sensors needed to see cracks one-quarter of an inch wide in the heat shield along the front of the shuttle's wings. But engineers recently decided that even smaller damage is unacceptable.