The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel has warned NASA that its workforce has been so reduced by redundancies and a hiring freeze that Space Shuttle safety could be jeopardised.
If new engineering and other staff are not employed, it could create a crisis over the next five to 10 years, says a US safety body report.
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin acknowledges the report, but emphasises that safety "-is the number one priority".
NASA has reshuffled Space Shuttle missions for this year and pushed one of the flights into 2000, as a result of Russia's delayed launch of the International Space Station (ISS) Service Module, expected in September.
The STS96 Discovery, an ISS logistics and spacewalk mission, is planned to be the first of the year, with a flight on 20 May.
This will be followed by the delayed mission to deploy the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, that of STS93 Columbia, on 9 July.
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mapper mission, on STS99 Endeavour, is scheduled for 16 September.
The ISS logistics mission, STS101 Atlantis, is pushed to 14 October by the Service Module delay. It will include the first flight of a Shuttle with the multifunction electronic display system glass cockpit. The STS92 Discovery, the first major ISS "construction" mission, will fly on 2 December.
Alenia Aerospazio will build two cupolas for the ISS, under a European Space Agency contract.
Source: Flight International
