Following Space Shuttle Discovery's landing, a material scientist at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is studying ways to prevent foam from falling off the shuttle.
Edgar Lara-Curzio said the foam issue is critical to the shuttle mission's future.
"It's unfortunate the problem with the foam remains there," Lara-Curzio said. "We have started a little brain storming here at the lab on ways to improve the tank."
Lara-Curzio expects it to be some time before the foam issue is resolved and another shuttle is launched.
"In the next launch, there's going to be a high level of reliability in insurance that nothing like that will happen again," Lara-Curzio said.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.