This segment from today's New York Times says it all. Hundreds of millions spent on this problem but they decided to put off fixing the part of the fuel tank implicated in the latest foam loss. Need more be said about their concern for safety or the way they spend taxpayer money?

NY Times 28 July 2005:

The detection of another large breakaway piece of insulating foam is a potentially devastating setback for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and a bitter counterpoint to the elation of Monday's seemingly perfect launching of the Discovery, a return to flight that was hailed as an inspiring comeback for the space program.

The effort to fix the foam problem had consumed more than two years and hundreds of millions of dollars. NASA identified the area on the tank that shed the latest piece of foam as a risk, but put off redesigning it.

"We decided it was safe to fly as is," Mr. Parsons said. "Obviously, we were wrong."