NASA Chief ready to launch another space shuttle

NASA Chief Michael Griffin hasn't given up on launching another space shuttle, despite the decision to suspend flights until the space agency can stop foam insulation from snapping off.

He said he has set up a "tiger team" to try solve the problme as quickly as possible. "We don't expect this to be a long drawn-out affair," he said by telephone from Washington in a briefing with reporters in Houston.

Like other NASA officials, he said "we made a mistake" in not addressing the area of the external fuel tank where a piece of foam broke off shortly after Discovery's launch on Tuesday, the AP reports.