Posted: Fri, Jun 9, 2006, 8:10 AM ET (1210 GMT)
The crew of the next shuttle mission said Thursday that they're ready to fly and confident that the risks of the mission are acceptable. Members of the STS-121 crew said that they believe that risks associated with foam falling off the external tank have been brought down as low as feasible, and are ready to fly on their mission to the ISS next month. NASA officials said they plan to add another inspection of the exterior of the shuttle Discovery late in the mission in order to test a laser imager that can detect small damage caused by micrometeors or other high-speed particles. STS-121 is scheduled for launch during a window that runs from July 1-19.
