[KellyAdmirer]

The real question is why so many at NASA dismissed the foam concept so quickly. Seemed too obvious? Assuming this and that about the foam (so little mass couldn't cause any damage, it couldn't accelerate quickly enough to do any damage, etc.) just assumed the problem away. That's not good science. If NASA is not practicing good science, that is the real problem.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Are you a NASA scientist, perhaps? It appeared even to me to be a sheet of ice dislodged. If the foam builds up in layers like ice, then their scenario, even to the common man, appears right.

I wouldn't second guess these engineers.

[aristeides]

I think it was typical CYA as practised by bureaucrats. If it was the foam, it was the result of the (politically correct) failure to go back to the old foam after the EPA granted a waiver. That spells blame for some bureaucrats. It also potentially spells liability.

[jpthomas]

The NASA Administrator is a "bean-counter", not an engineer. I can understand NASA not wanting to leap to a premature conclusion as to the root cause of the accident, but there was no reason to mock those who suspected the impact of the insulation as "foamologists".

I worked on aerospace structures for more than twenty years before I retired from the Air Force, including work on the hot structures design of the National AeroSpace Plane (NASP). I have "eyeballed" the thermal tiles on a shuttle undergoing overhaul in the VAB at KSC. I suspected the foam impact played a significant role in the disaster as soon as I saw the video of the event. There may have been other contributing factors, but an anomalous event like that has to be given serious consideration from the get-go.

[DaGman]

"The real question is why so many at NASA dismissed the foam concept so quickly. Seemed too obvious?"

Yes it did. That meant the bureaucracy had to deal with a problem and not follow its routine during the flight. It was more than the bureaucracy wanted to deal with at the time. Dealing with the foam problem meant acknowledging a problem. In a bureaucracy as large as NASA you don't bring up problems.