[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

It wouldn't be the first time someone in a government-funded program or agency skirted the truth in order to justify their mistakes, or to avoid negative fallout.

I don't know what he knows or doesn't know. All I know is what I heard in the press conference. And, as someone who has professional experience in Question and Answer sessions dealing with serious or touchy subjects, I'm just trying to offer my reaction to his response.

Noone asked him if tiles could be repaired. All that was asked was if Nasa had considered a spacewalk to investigate the impact that occurred during launch.

His answer was totally defensive. Between several of his responses, the "theme" was "Nothing could have been done to repair tile damage" - I don't believe that for a minute. Regardless, who cares if it couldn't have been repaired? That is NO justification for failing to fully investigate before re-entry.

[Calvin Locke]

What!?

I distinctly remember the PR from the early days of the shuttle. Tiles flew off, iirc, during transport on the 747.
Adhesive changed. Tiles missing after one of the first landings.

"Somebody" came up with a way to "patch" missing tiles in orbit. Glob of some adhesive and spare tiles. Wasn't
pretty, but it worked. NASA was quite proud in showing how the repair would work on TV, too.

Now excuse me while I hit the head to relieve some of the smoke NASA is blowing up...

[Just mythoughts]

If he had listened to the tube at all today, he would have been fully aware that suggestions have been made all day about whether or not the falling object could be a reason.

Based upon what I have heard thus far, so much speculation has been offered as to what happened, I too heard his response and because of all the speculation I have heard today was not surprised at all by his response.

To me he knew exactly what the reporter was getting to and his response was broadly given to say, we have no reason to believe that the falling object caused a problem, and even if the tile had been damaged, there was no way they were prepared to check it or repair it.

Further, I also understood that the area where the tile may have been hit was not the same location of the sensors, or source where the problem was. Might be on same wing, however, not same area.

Quite frankly, I didn't think he was defensive enough. Put yourselves in his shoes, how long ago did this happen, yet he is put in front of the world to answer what went wrong. Already speculation is out that this was cause by something that went wrong on the way up and you did nothing.

They had asked for photo to be taken from inside to see damage, so those on board would not have enough knowledge to demand a look see before they came home.

The dangers involved in space travel are beyond the ability for most to comprehend. Human made vehicles against the force of nature do not always hold up.

Today is a very sad time and in an 8 hour time span to read that someone spots potential "guilt" in an response to questions by a reporter, really hit me the wrong way.

Time may prove you right, however, it just seems a little early to assign guilt.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

His answer was totally defensive. Between several of his responses, the "theme" was "Nothing could have been done to repair tile damage" - I don't believe that for a minute. Regardless, who cares if it couldn't have been repaired? That is NO justification for failing to fully investigate before re-entry.

Worst case, if a visual inspection had discovered damage that could lead to the type of catastrophic failure that happened today, the shuttle could have made it to the ISS, which could have served as their "lifeboat" until a rescue/repair mission was sent up. This would have required some imaginative improvising, no doubt, but no more so than what was done for Apollo 13. I guess that crew doesn't work at NASA any more, though. . .