Foam

CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA's efforts to put the International Space Station program back on track took a major step forward yesterday with the safe return of the shuttle Discovery after a near-flawless 13-day mission. Astronauts accomplished every objective during their visit to the $100 billion space station, including the deliveries of a new resident and 3 tons of equipment and supplies. The flight's larger significance, however, might be that it positions the space agency to begin a final push of 15 more missions needed to finish the station before the planned retirement of the shuttles in 2010.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Discovery's astronauts will inspect much of their ship's heat shielding for signs of damage today after a Fourth of July liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center, the first shuttle flight in almost a year. Mission managers expressed confidence that the inspections will confirm indications from launch photography that the shuttle's fuel tank did not shed dangerous pieces of foam insulation as happened on three of the past four flights. Footage from a video camera mounted on the tank showed several small objects breaking off at five different times during Discovery's 8 1/2 -minute climb to orbit, en route to the International Space Station.

CAPE CANAVERAL,Fla. -- This afternoon's planned liftoff of space shuttle Discovery is on after a lengthy debate last night over a small chunk of foam insulation that broke off the ship's fuel tank. Detailed inspections of the shuttle's tank at the launch pad convinced NASA managers the issue did not pose a safety hazard. As a result, shuttle officials cleared Discovery for flight late yesterday without ordering further inspections today. "There were no dissenters when we went around the room," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's head of space operations.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Amid lingering concerns that insulating foam might flake off the space shuttle's external fuel tank, NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin said yesterday that today's scheduled launch of Discovery is a risk worth taking. "You're not going to like this, and I'm sure I'm not going to like the way it sounds in print," Griffin said at a media briefing near the shuttle's launch pad. "But we are playing the odds." Balancing the danger of a catastrophe like the ones that destroyed Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 against the pressure to adhere to a schedule that calls for shutting down the shuttle program in 2010 "is what you pay us for as taxpayers," he said.

At Faidley's Seafood, folks eat their crab cakes hunched over one of the Lexington Market counters, but if they want them to go, the famous Baltimore eatery will tuck them into a white plastic foam container. Unless one city councilman has his way. Councilman James B. Kraft is introducing legislation today that would ban city restaurants from using foam. No cups, no plates, no takeout boxes. Nothing made from polystyrene, which environmentalists have frowned upon for not being biodegradable and which Kraft blames for dirtying the Inner Harbor.

CANCUN, Mexico -- If the talk about borders and immigration drags on at the summit here today, President Bush could always slip out and sneak into "the foam party." That's tonight's bash at one of the disco-lounges on the resort's hotel strip, where American college students in bathing suits gyrate to music beneath an endless stream of foam raining on them from the ceiling. The foam slops around like the beer in their plastic cups, rising from the floor up to their necks and billowing up on their heads.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The only way to really test the safety of the space shuttle's redesigned external fuel tank is to fly, according to Discovery's astronauts, who said yesterday that they were eager for a May liftoff. "We will lose foam on this flight, just like every other," said commander Steven Lindsey, who could lead a crew into space as early as May or as late as July. "The key is to make sure that the foam we do lose is a small enough size so it can't hurt us if it hits the vehicle."

Oh, the pressure of picking the right sofa. There's so much to consider: shape, size, styling, construction and so much more. Do you want the sofa to make a statement or blend into the background in order to showcase artwork? Neutral or printed fabric? Durable cotton or ethereal silk? How will you use the sofa? As a perch for reading, a high-backed sofa may be perfect. Or if you like to lie down on the sofa, the comfort and height of the arm are very important. Catherine A. Howard of the Greystone Home Collection, with showrooms in Los Angeles and New York, offers these tips: Good bones: Like the human form, a sofa has a skeleton or framework that sets the form, comfort and longevity of the piece.

Mike Wiltshire says it's not rocket science. Dragging a bundle of hoses across a sweltering roof, Wiltshire explains some basics: Move smoothly, maintain your equipment; a heavy wind is your worst enemy. He is enveloped in a paper-thin safety suit, dark glasses, a baseball hat and crusty tennis shoes wrapped in duct tape. The outside temperature is approaching 100 degrees. He lowers his spray gun into firing position and squeezes the trigger. A chemical batter hisses out, rising like a pancake on a hot skillet when it hits the roof.

Two days after the return of Discovery, NASA officials said that the next shuttle mission will probably be delayed until November because engineers have been unable to figure out why insulating foam fell off the spacecraft's external fuel tank. Officials had been hoping to be able to clear up the foam problem in time for a September launch of Atlantis. "We didn't find any root cause" for the foam incident, said William Gerstenmeier, the program manager of the International Space Station.