[csvset]

I don't know all the technical requirements or even if possible, but it may have helped detect damage to exterior.

If the ground crew had told the shuttle crew that their lives depended on a visual scan of the wing, they'd have improvised a way to have checked it.

The folks on the ground had a serious fault in logic by not doing a visual check.

[OReilly]

Correct

[John Jamieson]

Might have been able to due a space rescue for a few people, but not 7. Time would have run out.