Damon Hill wrote:
As I suspected would be the case; the retirement of the Shuttle
will have to be pushed back,

So who exactly do you think will be brave enough to take responsibility
for keeping the shuttle flying past 2010?

Currently we have a fixed date to stop flights, and if a shuttle is
lost then Congress can blame NASA for screwing up. If Congress tell
them to keep flying til 2014 and a shuttle is lost after 2010, NASA
will blame Congress for telling them to keep flying.

Do you think there's a single person in Congress with the balls to take
that responsibility?

Mark