What are the main challenges the team will have to overcome as we fly these final Shuttle missions?
DECASTRO: I’m glad you used the term “team.” I want to start by saying that the “Shuttle Team” is outstanding. It’s very much like a family. It’s great people working together to achieve a common goal, and that goal is important to every member of the team, to NASA, to the United States and, for that matter, for all of us on Earth. We are in an exciting business at a very challenging time, as NASA completes the Shuttle mission, conducts the last Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, completes the International Space Station and makes the transition to the Constellation Program to support further exploration. The main challenges we have to overcome to finish the Shuttle mission are: maintaining the critical/essential skilled employees necessary to safely complete the mission; maintaining the critical suppliers necessary to provide support to the program; dealing effectively and efficiently with the unknowns, like the past problems with cracked flow liners, on-pad damage to an extern
