MSNBC -- NASA memo -- wing damage

Posted almost an hour later. A complete story on the multiple investigations NASA is undertaking. An excerpt below:

In recent months, former NASA administrators had voiced concerns about the safety of the shuttle fleet. But The New York Times reported Monday that after an expert panel warned of shuttle safety issues, NASA removed five of the panel’s nine members and two consultants in what some of them said was a move to suppress their criticism.

NASA conceded the individuals were forced out, but told the Times it changed the charter of the group so that new members who were younger and more skilled could be added. “It had nothing to do with shooting the messenger,” a NASA spokeswoman told the newspaper.

The most recent report by NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel came out last March and included analyses by the former members, warning that work on long-term shuttle safety “had deteriorated.” Tight budgets were forcing an emphasis on short-term planning and adding to a backlog of planned improvements, the report said.

In April, Richard Blomberg, former chairman of that panel, warned of danger ahead, saying, “I have never been as concerned for space shuttle safety as I am right now.”