MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator...

The results of this mission are extremely important for the International Space Station program, more so than for the United States. NASA experts are telling the press that the shuttle program may be terminated before 2010 [when the 25-year-old fleet is scheduled to retire] if Discovery suffers any setbacks during its flight.

One does not want to be pessimistic, but even laymen who sometimes read press reports understand that the world's first shuttle fleet has become extremely vulnerable.

Although NASA has done a lot to promptly analyze and eliminate the causes of the February 1, 2003 Columbia disaster, it is obvious that the insulating foam on the troublesome external tank still poses a major problem.

One should praise the courage of NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who decided to go ahead with the launch despite objections from his own staff.

NASA chief safety officer Bryan O'Connor and chief engineer Christopher Scolese had called for a

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