I concur. I think that the lack of a walk around or a request for pictures to see if there was damage borders on negligence.
They knew that the shuttle had been impacted, yet failed to take a look see. That is inexcusible, imo.
According to what I heard on Fox News, this is not a rare event. It has happend nine times before without incident.
apparently you do not understand that a 'walk around' was not possible! They cannot space walk outside of the confines of the cargo bay under any circumstances unless tethered to the robot arm, which this shuttle did not have.
Secondly, pictures were taken of the external fuel tank and were going to be examined by NASA upon return. Pictures of any damage to the orbiter could not be achieved in space.