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apparently you do not understand If the ground crew had told the shuttle crew that their lives depended on a visual scan of the wing, they'd have improvised a way to have checked it.

They (mission control) had taken pictures (visual check) of previous missions using telescopes yet declined to do so in this case.

I'll stand by my assessment that mission control screwed up by not doing a visual check. Like I said in a earlier post , the debris impact may or may not have damaged the left wing.

Since they didn't bother to check it out to their utmost ability, it'll just have to be a question that naws on them while they lay awake at night. Action or lack thereof when other people's lives depend on what you do has it's consequences.

[BOOTSTICK]

Isn't it true, that the shuttle bay has a boom, that can be equiped with a camera? I find it hard to beleive that NASA engineers would have such a cavalier attitude about the damage done to the left wing at lift off. Seems to me they simply crossed their fingers and hoped for the best.