Did challengers standdown uncover other lost vehicle issues?

This statement concerns me. We have more waivers than ever, a sloppy management
team that accepted its not caused a problem so its safe. Now we are going to
return to flight without reviewing fully the decisions that team made in the
past???

What if the station were put in caretaker status for 2 years? Would that be the
end of the world to resume flying safer? What problems were uncovered in the
Challeger standown?

Plus the stand down appears to be at lest a year. So a extra 18 months is al
thats needed? Whats 18 months in the life of the program?

http://www.floridatoday.com/news/spa...072703hale.htm

One example is the 1,600-plus "waivers" of known problems with shuttle systems
that were on the books when Columbia launched Jan. 16. That's more than twice
the number of accepted defects that were in place when Challenger exploded in
1986. The panel that investigated the Challenger accident, and subsequent
safety reviewers, has questioned whether NASA has made excessive use of the
waiver system -- flying with problem systems, rather than redesigning them.

After Challenger, NASA said it was canceling all waivers and reviewing them one
by one. Many were reinstituted. Hale said NASA might not be able to take that
kind of approach this time around.

"The situation is different than after the Challenger accident in that it is
somewhat more imperative for us to fly again soon to support the International
Space Station," Hale said. "So we need to ensure that we do the things that we
must do to return to flight before the first flight, but also capture those
things that we need to do long-term.

"We feel like if we did the equivalent work that we did after Challenger, it
would take a similar amount of time to return to flight -- two plus years.
Quite frankly, we need to return to flight sooner than that because of the
station, so we are a bit constrained on time."

Hale said his new job is not intimidating. Instead, he said he is in awe of the
task.

"That is a tall order," Hale said. "I wake up every morning with a shiver,
saying we've got to do this right and what can I do personally to make sure we
do the very best job."