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NASA says it’s fixed shuttle foam problem
But astronauts can’t patch Columbia-level damage
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5831547/

Snipet last paragraph:
The space agency is aiming for three shuttle flights in 2005 and then five a year through 2010, by which time station construction should be completed. The three remaining shuttles will be retired at that point, and NASA’s focus will shift to flying to the moon and beyond that to Mars.

I do not see Nasa even coming close to the 5 missions a year because of the turn around times after each flight.

Batteries have a two fold effect when joined to solar array collectors, one is the storage of a charge for later use when the solar panel collections drop off but they also act like a capacitor in that they equalize the charge to an average voltage. So even if you throw out the batteries you would still need a large capacitance bank to equalize the voltage for use under changing loads.

Changing the rotation speed of a gyro changes the counter balancing response time.

So even if the Space Exploration Vision is mandated I still see a problem with execution of it. The first being Funding, the second being NASA and the third being lack of designed equipment to do the job of going.

In baseball that is three strikes and you are out.

Private industry might be able to do the last one but it will be the others that will stop any chance of getting it done.

True about the large hole cement but if you have ever done any auto bondo work you would know that it will not stay in the hole unless you put in some sort of backing materiel to aid with holding it in place.
Also a protective wrap that is used at launch need not be overly aggressive since it does not see the re-entry heat. We are not looking to protect the ship once in orbit with the wrap only on the way up.

Ball Aerospace needs room
Company eyes more space in Boulder in coming years

http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc....00.html

snipet:
One example of how times have changed: In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ball Aerospace helped build solar observation crafts that stood about 5 feet tall. By comparison, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope — to which Ball Aerospace will add an optical subsystem before it launches in 2010 — towers five times that height.

Items that can change a good working model into an ineffective or non operative one.

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Fixing culture may be toughest task
http://www.flatoday.com/news....URE.htm

Snipet:
On the spring day when Discovery sits out there on its launch pad waiting to return to space, saying "go" or "no go" for launch won't be so hard.

Wayne Hale, a veteran shuttle flight director, is accustomed to making tough choices on the spot. Instead, for Hale, the stuff to sweat over includes the countless wrenching decisions that must be made during this two-plus years between the last shuttle flight and the next one.

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No rubber stamps
http://www.flatoday.com/news....TLE.htm

Snipet:
T-minus seven months and counting, or so NASA hopes.

The agency continues to press for a March or April liftoff of the first post-Columbia shuttle flight, which must go without a hitch for its manned spaceflight program to regain traction and credibility with the public.

The eventual return to flight of the shuttle is progress though be at a snails pace.

Radar Test During Messenger Launch May Help "Return To Flight"
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/au … _test.html

Snipet:
Radar tracking data gathered during the Delta II launch of the MESSENGER spacecraft earlier this month has provided promising results that may benefit NASA's Space Shuttle Program and Discovery's Return to Flight.

Found this link on an old topic on what to do with a shuttle when retired. I thought that it would be easy to implement.
Plus it would give more places to do science and give the private industry more reasons to start spending some cash on space to develope infrastruture to service them.

STS-Lab:  A Low Cost Shuttle-Derived Space Station

http://www.space-frontier.org/Project....tle.htm

Space Tug to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's Rescue?
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10083

http://www.orbitalrecovery.com/

If I recall correctly there was some discussion on the safety margin for bring Hubble bad in the cargo bay of the shuttle fully intact. Not sure if this was a report or not. I feel to lessen that effect you might remove Items to lower the weight some, in order to increase the safety margin.

Lawyer Advising Vets Quits Bush Campaign Presidential Elections. Benjamin Ginsberg has been advising Bush on the veterans group TV ads running against Democrat John Kerry resigned Wednesday from Bush's campaign.

It is starting to look more like a dead heet than an election.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm....up_bush

Japan Plans to Launch Spy Satellites
Report Says Japanese Space Panel Approves Plan to Launch Spy Satellites in 2005-2006

Snipet:
A Japanese government panel has approved plans to send two spy satellites into Earth's orbit beginning next year, a media report said Wednesday.
If confirmed, the missions would be the first since late 2003 for Japan's ailing space program, which has suffered a slew of launch and mission failures.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040825_903.html