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Panel: NASA falls short on safety pointsAgency administrator will make final call on return to flight
 NASA cited concerns about ice when Discovery's launch was postponed from May to July. RELATED
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSWASHINGTON (CNN) -- A panel chartered to oversee NASA's return-to-flight program said Monday the agency failed to fully meet three of the 15 return-to-flight recommendations laid out after the Columbia accident. But the independent oversight group also praised NASA's efforts across the board at a news conference after the panel's final meeting. The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group is expected to deliver a final assessment Tuesday to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who will make the ultimate call on whether the agency is ready to return to flight. It remains unclear at this point if there will be further delays of the space shuttle Discovery's return to flight as a result of the group's findings. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, senior NASA officials and shuttle program managers will meet at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a "flight readiness review." Any lingering issues related to the Discovery launch will be aired, and the flight will either be postponed or an official launch date will be set. NASA has committed to daytime launches for the next two shuttle missions in order to ensure ideal lighting conditions for the cameras that will scrutinize the shuttle's ascent into orbit. NASA has an opportunity from July 13 to July 31 to conduct a daytime launch on a trajectory needed for a rendezvous with the international space station. If Discovery does not launch during that window, shuttle managers would have to wait until September 9 for acceptable lighting conditions to return. The shuttle fleet has been grounded since February 1, 2003, when Columbia broke apart over Texas while on landing approach to Florida's Kennedy Space Center, killing all seven astronauts on board. Seven months later, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded that foam insulation broke off during launch from the shuttle's external fuel tank, striking and cracking a panel on the orbiter's wing. When the shuttle re-entered the Earth's atmosphere 16 days later, searing hot gases seeped into the wing and incinerated the spacecraft. Then-NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe chartered the Stafford-Covey group to monitor NASA's progress and certify that the agency has completed a 15-point list for return to flight drawn up by the Columbia board. Prior to Monday, the Stafford-Covey group indicated NASA had met 12 of 15 of the recommendations. Unmet recommendationsTwo of the lingering unmet recommendations were at the heart of a "debris verification review" that shuttle program managers held last week at the Kennedy Space Center to hash out concerns about the risk to an orbiter posed by ice falling off the shuttle's external tank during liftoff. "At the end of the day, the recommendation from the board was that we were in an acceptable risk posture," said shuttle program manager Bill Parsons after that meeting. "They recommended to me ... that we proceed on with the launch. I accepted that recommendation. And that's where we are headed now." Resolution of the ice issue has been regarded as the last big hurdle the shuttle program needs to clear before Griffin gives the go-ahead for the return of the space shuttle fleet to service. In late April, Griffin cited concerns about the ice when he postponed Discovery's launch from May to July. The Stafford-Covey Group on Monday officially closed out the only other unmet recommendation, which had to do with NASA's ability to repair an orbiter's "thermal protection system" during orbit. But members of the task group signaled earlier this month that they don't see failure to meet that mandate as a roadblock to return to flight. The underside of a space shuttle is covered with insulating tiles, and the edges of the wings have reinforced carbon-carbon panels. Together, they make up the protection system, which is designed to ensure the shuttle can withstand the intense heat of re-entry. Before the Columbia accident, astronauts had no way to inspect for and repair any damage to the system that they might find. But since the Columbia accident, NASA engineers have designed an orbital boom sensor system, which is a second robotic arm that is tipped with cameras and other instruments and mounted in the shuttle's payload bay. Once in orbit, shuttle astronauts will use the boom to inspect the panels on an orbiter's wings and nose cone for any damage that might have occurred during launch. But repairing damage to the protection system -- should they find any -- has proved difficult. Engineers have been developing and testing plugs and crack-repair procedures for the reinforced carbon-carbon panels, as well as tile-repair techniques, for use in the event of damage. Two such methods will undergo limited testing in orbit by Discovery astronauts, but mission managers acknowledge that their techniques will likely need to be modified before they can be certified. And most NASA engineers agree that astronauts would never be able to repair a hole the size of the one that doomed Columbia. Nevertheless, members of the the Stafford-Covey group said that in their estimation NASA has adequately compensated for the lack of an effective repair capability by redesigning the external tank to minimize the size of any foam or ice that might come off and hit the shuttle during liftoff. The group also has endorsed NASA's "safe haven" plan, which calls for the international space station to be equipped to provide shelter to a shuttle crew in the event an orbiter is irreparably damaged upon liftoff and cannot safely re-enter Earth's atmosphere. In such an emergency scenario, a shuttle crew would live aboard the station for six to eight weeks while another orbiter is prepared to undertake a rescue mission. 
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