[TruthNtegrity]

I congratulate you on your optimism but I do not share it. If it couldn't be fixed by the crew, I can only wonder why they didn't send them to the space station until they could send another shuttle up to get them. Maybe they didn't have the fuel to get themselves into an orbit to link up, but I am more and more concerned by the photos of the damage from the foam hitting the left wing on takeoff, and the fact that the high temperature readings were from that left wing, the last transmission between Houston and the shuttle crew.

It has also been stated, over and over again, that if the heat-preventing tiles on the wing were damaged, there was no way to repair them. Extra-vehicular jaunts are usually always in the cargo bay, not under the shuttle where they can't be seen and where it just isn't safe for them to go.

Besides, they don't carry tiles to replace any lost, because every tile is specific to it's placement. But, if the tiles "zippered", one was knocked off, and then as the heat built up on re-entry, the next one, and then the next one, and so on, were removed, then the skin of the shuttle was being exposed to 3000 degrees of heat.

If there was no way for them to repair the damage, and no way for the shuttle to get to the space station, did the guys on the ground just "hope for the best" and let them come home, not really knowing if they could make it?

Did anyone do a "worst case analysis"? If you remember the movie "Apollo 13", while the crew was fighting to stay alive, the engineers on the ground were experimenting with every possible alternative, while working on a back up to that, in case even that failed. Backup to backup - as many alternatives, provided a way to get the crew home. Did they do the same for the Columbia crew? Not that I've heard.

Just for the record. I mention the movie "Apollo 13" as a reference, but I am an engineer who worked for Grumman on NASA projects, among them the LEM. Products I worked on were required to have Maintainability and Reliability numbers NINE digits to the right of the decimal point - meaning they just weren't going to fail. Less than .999999999, and a backup or two was required. There is no backup to a lost tile. It is the most vulnerable part of the shuttle.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It seems that those tiles are an EXTREMELY weak link.

[Swordmaker]

I can only wonder why they didn't send them to the space station until they could send another shuttle up to get them.

It was not an option. The ISS is 115 or so miles higher and in a completely different orbit pitch. Columbia did not have the Delta V (the ability to change velocity and vector) to reach the space station.

[nobdysfool]

Extra-vehicular jaunts are usually always in the cargo bay, not under the shuttle where they can't be seen and where it just isn't safe for them to go.

Keep in mind that the shuttle, while in orbit, is actually upside down. That has been shown by many pictures. The cargo bay opens toward the earth, not away from it. Watch any films of the launch. The whole rocket and shuttle rolls on its back, and that's the way the shuttle orbits the earth. So you have to define "under the shuttle". The underside of the shuttle is actually "topside" while in orbit.