"Space flight is hazardous and not for weenies !!!"
And apparently some of the critics here think they are smarter then the engineers and brave astronauts combined on this challenging problem. What part of "test' flight is not understood? She wont fly again until this new data is processed and acted upon. thats the way it works.
As "Q" said on Star Trek....
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you'd better just go home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wonderous, filled with wonders to satiate desires both suttle and gross, but it's not for the timid."
A major political decision will now have to be made because surely the fix will require additional funding that would be taken away from other NASA programs and the shuttle follow-on program.
IMO, "no insulation events" was the bottom line for this flight.
Life is hard. It is harder if you are stupid. :)
How do you know that some of us FReepers (that have been here a lot longer than you) are not engineers much more familiar with the shuttle and its problems than you are?
Sure there is some piling on going on. But blindly following the stuff that comes out of NASA PAO is merely spreading the ignorance around.
A lot of good people worked long and hard on making this and every other shuttle flight as safe as possible. Unfortunately the Political Correctness of environmental friendliness at the expense of safety and common sense is forced on those people by government bureaucrats, that know that their job continues regardless of whether shuttle fly - safely or otherwise.
Stick around a while, you'll be amazed at what you will learn on FR.
Why did they send a schoolteacher on a "test flight"? The shuttle has become an expensive political showboat.
"What part of "test' flight is not understood? She wont fly again until this new data is processed and acted upon. thats the way it works."
E X A C T L Y !
The STS has yet to be deemed "operational" for that reason. This is akin to flight test failures and standowns a la military aircraft. But since the potential failures are so spectacular ans so very PUBLIC, the critics bay like restless hounds.
A lot of people don't realize that the often praised Russian space program has been a great deal more deadly. But then again, they launch and land their systems on the nearly-deserted tundra under some secrecy. To this day.
We launch and land the Shuttle off of a resort coast down the road from freeking Disney! The wailing and gnashing of teeth is nauseating.