"I think flying within a year of the event is possible," said Michael Kostelnik, deputy Associate Administrator for the Space Shuttle Program.

"Will it be likely or not, we'll have to wait and see what the board determines to be the cause, and the recommendations they make," he said, referring to shuttle flights to service the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

"If we are able to return to flight in the January, February, March time frame, which hopefully is possible, that would take a lot of pressure off having to resupply" the ISS, he said.

Kostelnik's estimate of shuttle flight resumption was more conservative than one last month in which he spoke of flights by next fall, but which he retracted last week.

The final word, he said would come from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), which is probing the reason the shuttle disintegrated on re-entry into the atmosphere 12 minutes before its scheduled landing in Florida, and changes necessary to prevent a repetition.

The Orlando, Florida, Sentinel has quoted internal NASA reports blaming the accident on a piece of foam insulation that dislodged from one of the shuttle's external booster rockets on takeoff and damaged some of the shuttle's heat shield tiles.

According to the report, the damage allowed the super-heated gases generated on re-entry into the atmosphere to penetrate the shuttle's cabin causing the disintegration.

Kostelnik dismissed the report as "speculation from different media.

"We are getting our results from the board," he said. "The engineers are doing the staff work and providing all the staff work to the board, then the board is digesting it, then we get their assessment.

"The word from them will be the final word," said Kostelnik. "We are not reaching conclusions, we are providing information. Right now, we are waiting for them to provide the conclusion, we are not making it."

SPACE.WIRE