The stats are there before with freon and white paint, very little tile damage. After major damage. My best bud worked at Michoud and said that the SOFI would cure with holes and cracks where the SOFI would not cure correctly. NASA required that these scetions be cut out and the form would be filled using trowels and scopes just like a platerer would fill cracks in a wall. Roll the shuttle out to the pad and the sea air would cover the shuttle and would fill the cracks in the tanks. fill the tank with cryogenic fuel for take off and ice would form on the tank and the water in the cracks would freeze and voila ice expands and loosens the chunk. The chunk of SOFI and ice would separate and would separate and strick the shuttle.
BTW the tiles were going to be replaced by a metal tile system after about 25 flight but Congress wouldn't provide the funding.
The Venture Star and its new engine would have improve spaceflight but would have eliminated the external flight by being a single stage to orbit!
I was not talking about the freon though but about the fundamentals of having an unstable body reentering the atmosphere. Structural failure took the wing off but it was tumbling that took it all apart and killed the crew. All the biggest problems the shuttle had were introduced in the conceptualization phase. Had they built a bigger better apollo we would have far more space vehicles now. Of course that is moot because something less big and sex as the shuttle would never have gotten funded. So hind sight is pointless. But what we need NOW is cheaper and more reliable access. What burns me is that they are going to shink it and make it hold far fewer people than the shuttle.
The problem with Single Stage to Orbit is that you've got to drag that big-ass fuel tank around all the time, which requires a bigger tank, which is heavier, which requires a bigger tank, and so on....
The mathematics of staging are compelling.