Discovery's final launch postponed until February
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/101203delay/index.html
How did I know they won't launch this year?
...<SNIP>...
Because... of course... you have a direct line to God
Not really
I think former NASA people, who now are able to blunder out things they shouldn't have blundered out while they still were in office, are a pretty good line.
Now what is your forecast for February? (a forecast you'll stick to until then of course).
I don't really have forecasts. Just doubts.
As James Lovell said, we are afraid of heaving accidents today. Of course safety should stand above everything. But one can't ever assure a 100% safety, less than ever by a thousands of requirements and papers. One could research and test things for month, and by accident discover more and more things (like another cracks here and there etc.) which reveal more and more questions. Plus the Shuttle is exposed to different atmospheric conditions for month. January might be rather cold. So I don't think such delays increase safety, but just let to believe it would. One can't ever know all variables for sure.
If anything is uncertain, it's space flight. Christopher C. Kraft (former NASA engineer and Apollo manager). And all those today NASA requirements do not make space flight any more certain.
Elon Musk was afraid because of those Air Force requirements which caused that huge delay for the first Falcon 9 launch. In respond a STS worker says that those Air Force requirements are just small potatoes compared to what he will have to anticipate once NASA will be partly responsable for Falcon 9 launches. So even commercial space flight will suffer from that bureaucracy machine, which is going to suffocate by its own requirements, rather than launching rockets efficiently...