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John, I have no idea what Nascar's record might be; but, neither Nascar nor the guy driving to work, have thousands of support people and Billions of dollars to spend to mitigate the risk. This shouldn't be a fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants business. The reason you have, and pay, for the ground team is specifically so that they are there to address issues. But that all goes to waste unless someone is willing to raise their hand and admit that they have a problem.

Not doing a check because you cannot repair missing tiles in space is simply a misuse of resources. Many of us heard them say precisely that at yesterday's news conference. Perhaps that was just a misstatement. I accept the loss as an inherent risk in the venture. By I reserve that I may be less accepting of how events unfolded on this mission. To have tried and failed is the natural course of things, to have ignored and failed is inexcusable. Time will tell.