NASA grounds space shuttle fleet

MIAMI, June 25 -- NASA has grounded the U.S. space shuttle fleet indefinitely after finding small cracks in propellant lines on the main engines of two shuttles, U.S. space agency officials said on Tuesday. The discovery of the cracks on shuttles Atlantis and Discovery during recent inspections will delay the scheduled July 19 launch of shuttle Columbia, which was to carry the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, and six others on a science mission.

The youngest shuttle in the fleet (Endeavour) is eleven years old; the oldest (Columbia) is twenty-one.

There is no replacement on the drawing board. There are "concepts" in the works. Expendable boosters, while based on decades old designs, have undergone such a series of "updates" as to become Something New. Not the shuttle.