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Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Shuttle's age linked to more problems On Tuesday, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said that NASA should re-examine the way it certifies space shuttles for launch due to increasing problems discovered last year, which can be blamed on the shuttle fleet's age. The panel cited cracks and leaks, "provide evidence of this degradation and indicate the need for re-evaluation of the certification criteria." The investigators of the Columbia incident are also investigating if the age of the shuttle could have had an effect on the break-up. “It's possible that you could do some damage to this orbiter that would have been as a result of a normal event which she could have survived at age 10, maybe she couldn't survive it at age 21," Admiral Harold Gehman told reporters earlier this month. The panel also criticized NASA for not having and escape for astronauts. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel's report noted that it was finished before the February 1 accident and that "no changes have been made to the report as a result of the loss of Columbia." @ 16:10 EST