[rs79bm]

Reading through all these posts I see a bunch of pessimists. Of course, SOMETHING could have been done, but it wasn't "deemed" an emergency. I can think of two or three things that could have saved human lives. 1) we could have sent up Atlantis to get them, which would have been capable of launch, 2) we could have kept them up there an additional week or so until a contingency plan was developed, or 3) we could have developed a plan to hitch them a ride on the international space station. All three, albeit, remote, would have given them a hopes chance of surviving. Instead, it was deemed to be of non-inportance by NASA and the excuse I heard yesterday was utterly incomprehensible: "ALthough we expected tile damage, there was absolutely nothing we could do about it". I don't know about you, but that excuse doesn't fly in my book.

[need_a_screen_name]

3) we could have developed a plan to hitch them a ride on the international space station.

Columbia could not have docked with the space station. Being the heaviest shuttle, it never orbited as high as the station, nor is it outfitted with a docking ring.

It is hard for me to believe that shuttles don't carry some sort of tile repair kits where the astronauts can go outside and do repairs, but it appears they don't.

[lonestar]

I don't know about you, but that excuse doesn't fly in my book.

Retired astronaut Gene Cernan said last night, it was better they didn't know of a potential problem. They had a good flight, they were happy, and nothing could have been done to repair damage. He also said they could not have hooked up to the space station because they were on a different course.

[Dave S]

1) we could have sent up Atlantis to get them, which would have been capable of launch, 2) we could have kept them up there an additional week or so until a contingency plan was developed, or 3) we could have developed a plan to hitch them a ride on the international space station.

It would have taken a week minimum to launch a rescue mission and cutting the pre-launch countdown like that would have put another crew at risk. Do you know the Shuttle had enough life support (Oxygen for example) to stay up another week? How do you get the astronauts from one vehicle to the other? The Columbia didnt have the teether arm in their cargo bay and who knows if the other Shuttle on launch pad had it installed. They couldnt have gone to the International Space Station because they were in a lower orbit and didnt have fuel to take them there. Again if they got there by some miracle, they could not dock with the ISS because the two are incompatible. Without the teether there would be no way to get there. You seem to want to trade no chance for the small chance they may have had reentering.

You seem to forget that on John Glenn's reentry they thought there was a good chance his capsule would burn up because they believed the heat shield was damaged. They didnt tell him because he had some chance returning and there was nothing he or anyone else could do.

[Timesink]

1) we could have sent up Atlantis to get them, which would have been capable of launch...

There's no way another shuttle could have been launched in time. They're not airplanes; you can't just open the hangar door and have them off the ground twenty minutes later. It would have taken weeks.

[Jim Noble]

>>1) we could have sent up Atlantis to get them, which would have been capable of launch, 2) we could have kept them up there an additional week or so until a contingency plan was developed, or 3) we could have developed a plan to hitch them a ride on the international space station<<

1) Not while they were alive, you couldn't.

2)No, you couldn't.

3) Insufficient delta-V on the Shuttle.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

[TheDon]

It doesn't fly with me either. They should never have launched a shuttle with no possible positive outcome to tiles damaged at launch. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. This type of operational mistake is not part of that "acceptable risk" associated with space flight.

[Burr5]

"Although we expected tile damage, there was absolutely nothing we could do about it." I don't know about you, but that excuse doesn't fly in my book.


I agree with you there. The sanctimonious shrieks from members of NASA's "extended family" can rain down on me till the cows come home, but I'll bet my ass that something could have been done to save these people if NASA knew of the situation. Remember all the extraordinary improvisation during Apollo 13?

A rescue mission involving Endeavor or Atlantis or Discovery couldn't have been attempted? I don't buy it.