The communications links went down simultaneously.

Both the primary and backup were lost simultaneously.

We're not going to do anything that will prevent any additional work in that area. It's possible the tank will be ready to fly as-is, depending on what the program decides.

The reasoning is instead of taking it offline for two years and spending a lot of money to return it to flight when it probably would fly only one time at the most, why spend that extra money, when you don't need to?

The reasoning is, instead of taking it off-line for two years and spending a lot of money to return it to flight when it probably would fly only one time at the most, why spend that extra money, when you don't need to?

The five solid rocket boosters are burning just fine, sending the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to the very edge of our solar system.