What else but delays and redesigns should we expect from an experimental manned space craft?

The thing clearly in evidence is what happens when an experimental space craft is rushed into operational status.

A goverment shouldn't be held to a business standard because it's not a business. Scrap the shuttle and the money for the shuttle doesn't stay under the perview of the NASA admistrator - it's not his or her money to spend.

I read somewhere - maybe even here - that the characteristics of foam are understood today about as well as the characteristics of steel were understood during the industrial revolution. And please remember the foam problems NASA is having happen right here on Earth, on the launch pad, not in space.

I say fly the damn thing. Again and again and again. Because it's exactly what a business would never do, and what a government absolutly should do that wants businesses to eventually make money flying in space.