The cracks are under evaluation and NASA hopes they will not delay the much delayed Feb. 3rd launch.

The launch of the space craft has already been delayed several times. Some other cracks in the shuttle have forced NASA to defer the Dec. 17 launch and push it to February.

Since then, the technicians have been scanning the external fuel tank including all the 108 support beams called stringers and in the process discovered small cracks on top of stringers on panel 6.

The decision to remove Viktor Remishevsky, deputy chief of Russian Federal Space agency and Vyacheslav Filin, vice president of rocket manufacturing company RSC Energia, was taken after getting the investigation report about the failure on Wednesday.

Two officials fired after investigation
The Russian rocket which was carrying three Glonass-M navigation satellites failed to make it to the orbit, after its launch on Dec. 5th and crashed in the Pacific Ocean.

The satellite is being dubbed as the largest satellite in the world. More details were not given as it is a classified mission.

The unmanned 23-story rocket carried the classified spy satellite.

Brig. Gen. Ed Wilson, commander 45th Space Wing of the Air Force, said that this mission will help them in strengthening the national defense.

Experts believe that the secret payload is a satellite capable of listening to a variety of transmissions from around the world. Such a satellite would have giant antennas stretching up to the size of a football field.