[Man of the Right]

This morning, wire services reported another shuttle could have been prepared within a week theoretically. Assuming any astronaut is still trained to do a rendezvous, resupply or a rescue could have been attempted. Space is at a premium on the Shuttle, but one wishes they could have deployed a video cam with rocket thrusters to inspect the craft. It would have been useful numerous times in manned space flight history. Evidence is growing they were dead man walking from lift-off.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Evidence is growing they were dead man walking from lift-off.

I believe that more than ever now. I viewed an enhanced video clip of the liftoff insulation impact event and it can be seen clearly that the debris contacted the underside of the left wing right in the area of the landing gear bay....not the leading edge of the wing.

I fear that there was quite substantial degradation to the protective thermal tiles in that area and there was no way at all to assess the damage in that area short of an EVA. And as stated by Mr. Dittemore yesterday, that plan of action could very well have caused more damage in the process.

NBC has also reported this morning that there is in fact the existence of a memo(s) stating concern that there was significant damage done during liftoff and that a re-entry would be extremely risky.

I do think we have an instance of NASA being afflicted by a fatal case of "not thinking outside the box."