[tacticalogic]

You seem pretty knowlegable about the physics involved, do you think their chances would have been substantially better if they had left the payload in orbit, and brought the shuttle back down empty?

[Poohbah]

You seem pretty knowlegable about the physics involved, do you think their chances would have been substantially better if they had left the payload in orbit, and brought the shuttle back down empty?

You mind telling me how they would get the damn spacelab module out of the Shuttle? It's not designed to be jettisoned...