[Fred Mertz]

Well, let's send you up strapped to the wing on the next shuttle launch so you can do some in-flight maintenance.

Howz about using high powered telescopes, you know, like the ones that capture pictures over Iraq. Ditz.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I believe we've seen eveidence presented here in previous threads (which I KNOW you read, so don't plead ignorance) that stated the odds of being able to see damage with a ground-based telescope would require the damage to be extensive... if it was a few tiles, it would not have been easily seen...

bottom line: if the damage was extensive enough to be seen by ground-based telescopes, it was extensive enough that the crew would already have been aware of the damage...