Will Not Appeal Decision To Launch

He objected to NASA's decision to press ahead for the launch of the space shuttle Discovery next month... but Bryan O'Connor does not believe his objection represents a danger to astronauts' lives.

"It's a done deal," said O'Connor, who is NASA's chief safety officer, on the shuttle's planned July 1 launch.

O'Connor -- along with NASA Chief Engineer Christopher Scolese -- voted "No Go" in last weekend's fateful meeting to determine if Discovery would launch as scheduled on July 1. The men said more work needed to be done to solve foam breakage issues on the shuttle's external fuel tank -- like those that doomed the Columbia orbiter in 2003.

While he did feel it is too soon to launch Discovery, O'Connor was quick to add he would have appealed NASA's decision had he believed the foam presented an extreme danger to the lives of astronauts flying onboard Discovery. 

O'Connor added, however, that he wished the problems he pointed out had already been solved, and that "we wish we understood the physics" of the foam breakage issues "a little better."

"It should have not gotten to the point where we'd say this is something we could fly with," O'Connor told the Associated Press. "It's a real close call."

This isn't the first time O'Connor, a former shuttle commander, has bucked the flow at NASA -- 10 years ago, he quit his job as shuttle program chief, over an agency reorganization he said would threaten crew safety. O'Connor had worked on the team that investigated the 1986 Challenger explosion, and returned to the agency as safety chief eight months before the Columbia tragedy.

O'Connor said his own office was split regarding the foam issue, with some not believing it is as big a problem as he thinks it is.

Incidentally... this is the first time a launch has ever proceeded over the objections of the safety officer.

FMI: www.nasa.gov