Originally Posted by GlueBall
Curiously, Mullane, "who took part on three shuttle missions before retiring in 1990," did not speak up earlier. I don't think that NASA would have sent him aloft if he didn't want to.
The truth is that NASA doesn't want to fly the shuttle anymore either. They know it's an old, fragile, unsafe design. But if the abandon the shuttle, they abandon the Space Station and any real reason for NASA to exist.
So they are going to keep pushing it up there. I'm sure they'll do their best to make it as safe as they can, given the constraints they operate under. But you can bet that there'll be lots of crossed fingers on every launch and re-entry.