[nvskibum]

I have read a post from one Freeper, a former NASA executive, suggesting that one problem may have been the heavy weight of the Columbia vehicle. Columbia, being the oldest shuttle, was considerably heavier than newer shuttles. The post stated that heavy re-entry weight would tend to create more stress and heat upon re-entry. If this is true, and if NASA knew that the vehicle sustained damage which would make re-entry more dangerous, might the situation have been improved if the crew were instructed to toss out all unessential items, such as experiments, unneeded equipment, everything in the cargo bay, etc., before initiating re-entry, in order to reduce vehicle weight and stress?

[El Gato]

might the situation have been improved if the crew were instructed to toss out all unessential items

It might have helped, if they could have done it. As it was they had no way to go EVA. At best they could have put a very things out by donning their Orange flight suits, evacuating the shuttle crew compartment, then opening the hatch to the cargo bay...oops can't do that, the hatch is connected to the tunnel to the spacehab module and there is no way to jettison the module, which is what accoounts for most of the extra weight. It would have been nice if they could have jettisoned the "cargo" but they couldn't. Perhaps that should be a requirement for future flights, that is the ability to jetison whatever is in the cargo bay.