[spokanite]

I totally agree with you! There are many posts on this board that are just saying, accidents happen. Well, accidents happen here on planet earth all the time but SOMEONE will end up with the blame!

I'm still struggling with the fact that they didn't have the capability to go outside of the shuttle and take a look at the damage. It was passed off as something minor from the very beginning, without even looking further into it.

[A Citizen Reporter]

"I'm still struggling with the fact that they didn't have the capability to go outside of the shuttle and take a look at the damage."

Do you have the capability to go outside of the last airplane you flew to riolinda, and repair it while it flight? Do you think the airlines do....while in flight?

[Luis Gonzalez]

On another thread, someone with a solid knowledge of the shuttle explained that because of the frail nature of the tiles, untrained hands (astronauts) could have actually caused further damage by attempting a repair. Not only that, but we are all assuming that this thing at take-off was at fault, I'll wait for NASA's findings, but I also know that there is a whole lot of space trash floating around up there from previous flights, and something may have hit the vehicle on re-entry, causing a "tear" in the surface which could have a "zipper" effect on the tiles.

Just speculating.