Yeah that looks the most likey, another thing they are looking at is a structural failure in the shuttle. I can imagine that after 22 years and 27 successful missions the shuttle's structure could have been feeling the effects of all that stress.

If they used my Ego as a heat shield NONE of this woulda happned but NOOOOOOO noone listens to me

Hahahaha, ohhhh that's a good one Z.

I try my best

I am sorry I am LATE.

Rheinland Destroyer said

I was thinking that the shuttles should be grounded indefinitely


You are joking me right. Incase you did not remember there is a space station up there. You ground the shuttle fleet and you put their lives in danger. I do wish that some people would take their heads from thier asses.

Come Fly With Me.
Lets Fly Lets Fly
And Whoop some Coalition Batty

Personally I think they should be redisgned and a new generation should be launched. Because something has got to be wrong with the design.

---

You are joking me right. Incase you did not remember there is a space station up there. You ground the shuttle fleet and you put their lives in danger. I do wish that some people would take their heads from thier asses.

---

That's a bit harsh tiger, im sure RD didn't mean we should leave those on the space station stranded.

It's not necessarily a design failure. Keep in mind the shuttle fleet has flown 113 times with 111 successes. One of those failures happened this weekend, the other occured 17 years agao and was the result of poor booster design, politics, and people not listening to the engineers, which could also be considered politics.

I read the astronauts still in the space station are going to have to wait a bit longer and then come home with a russian craft (sojoez or something like that). I don't think the americans will let their space shuttles fly another mission until they are sure they are safe

what really ticks me off is that, in todays paper, it is stated that NASA KNEW that some tiles were damaged, but figured that there was no cause for concern... besides, there's nothing they could have done anyway.
they came to the conclusion that everything was ok just off pure guess work, when they could have used any of the ground based telescopes, spy sattelites or even the cameras on the ISS to check for any further damage.
but nooooo. everything is hunky dory.. they'll be fine... everything is A-OK.. BOOOOOOOM. & good people dead. WTF!!!!!!!
from a company that keeps saying 'Safety First' they sure as hell dropped the ball on this one!

...Just a random thought from a random mind

Have to agree with you on that one, they could have just repaired the shuttle in orbit, or atleast let the astronauts go on the ISS and have a russian craft bring them down safely

---

ground based telescopes, spy sattelites or even the cameras on the ISS to check for further damage

---

Impossible. No ground based telescope would have the neccessary resolution to see any damage, assuming that 1) any damage is visible to the eye, 2) the shuttle ever ends up over a telescope with the capable resolution.

As for spy sattelites, again you're assuming that there happens to be a sattelite extremely close, that can reposition itself (most aren't designed to look at anything besides the earth) and even has cameras useful for the job. Even if a sattelite did come within range, chances are they would be moving far too fast relative to each other to even aim itself at the shuttle, much less take pictures of it. The ISS has the same problem. I think at most it came within a 100 miles a few times, but the ISS definitely doesn't have any cameras to take pictures of the shuttle at that range, again assuming they weren't moving very fast relative to each other.

---

they could have just repaired the shuttle in orbit

---

Not possible. The underside of the shuttle is not normally accessable by EVA, especially without the arm, which was not installed on the Columbia for this mission. The only conceivable way to pull off what would certainly be a suicidal spacewalk would be to have a very long tether to wrap around both sides of the wings, which would probably cause more damage than you were trying to locate. Even if you did, they simply don't have the ability to repair it in orbit.

---

atleast let the astronauts go on the ISS and have a russian craft bring them down safely

---

This wasn't possible either. The Columbia was not in the same orbital plane as the ISS. It would have taken massive delta-v to change orbit, which takes fuel the shuttle just does not have. Even if it did have the fuel, the Columbia doesn't have a matching docking port for the ISS. But, even if they DID, the Soyuz capsul that is constantly docked with the ISS can only hold three people. On top of that, the seats inside are custom fitted to the astronauts occupying the station. Having somebody else sit in them would be extremely dangerous, not to mention leaving behind half your crew, as well as the ISS crew without a way down without an emergency. Russia can't just launch a Soyuz from the hip in a week like NASA can with its shuttles (although to do so would be extremely dangerous and just be asking to lose a second crew) because they have to be built. If they can't build one fast enough, they definitely can't build three, especially without being able to custom fit the seats.

Tachyon....I couldn't have said it better. On the comment of their conclusions being "guess work". These people in NASA are some of the smartest people in the world. They know their stuff...yet it is still possible to make mistakes, after all they are only human. Making accusations that the work they did was "guess work" is an insult to those men and women that bust their butts for the space program. The "guess work" that they did involves calculations that would confuse many "smart" people. Everyday I am amazed when I think of eveything these people do. They figured out a way to send these massive machines away from this Earth and bring them back. They've managed to create an aerodynamic "brick" that hurtles through the dangers of the atmosphere and return home safely. This one time it is possible they made an error in calculation, one that cost seven lives and one that they will never make again. Oh and NASA knows they lose tiles all the time, they figured they lost tiles this time but it would only be a problem to the repair time and not for safety of the flight. Tachyon already stated responses to your other questions. I'm done

hey.. i took the info right from the front page of the toronto star.. now while i'm not one to take everything they say for granted.. it had direct quotes from nasa representatives, and other related speacialists.. and those specialists said it was guesswork. besides, it HAD to be guesswork, because if they were so sure, WHY ARE THOSE SEVEN PEOPLE SCATTERED ACCROSS TEXAS! my point is that they had other options open to them to assertain the true extent of the damage, even if it came up inconclusive.. but they didn't even care to try... why?
budget cuts ring a bell?
@ tach. yes it's possible to get resolution on ground based telescopes considering they can get good pictures of galaxies far far away, perhaps they may not have been in the right position, however it was an option unexplored
and damage was visible to the naked eye on the day of the shuttle launch, the extent was not known from the launch angle (see cnn pics)
as for spy satilites in correct position... at any given time, the us can get your liscence plate! and we were also told that at one time, the us had a lock on bin laden, but lost him. so we're looking at world wide coverage. im sure that at least one time during the entirety of the mission, said satelites were in such a position to get a picture, and i'm damn sure that pic would show exquisite detail. oh, and reading up on the satelites in the paper, they do have limited manueverability to take space photos.
You know what? it's possible that all these attemts to figure out just how damaged the shuttle was could have ended in failure. but you know what? they didn't even try! i'm not trying to insult the people at nasa, as i am well aware that their knowledge on this subject far surpases my own, however, even to me it seems asinine to entrust the lives of seven people to complex calculations written on paper without even trying to double check somehow.
another theory tossed around at nasa was that they could have brought them in at a different trajectory to offset the heavily damaged tiles.

I'm sorry if i'm ranting, but it bothers me that nasa didn't do everything possible to bring them home safely, then have a spokesperson with the audacity to claim that there wasn't anything they could have done about it anyway. all the while having other specialists from nasa interviewed that listed at least a few options that perhaps could have saved them.
Maybe it was budget cuts forcing them to use older designs until they could get the new models out.
Maybe it was a first class blunder from a higher up that they don't want to come clean about.
Maybe it was an honest mistake. you're right, they are human.
I'm just so sick and tired of being patted on the head and being told, everythings allright. Tell that to the families!

...Just a random thought from a random mind