Replies

Bobby, space travel is tough stuff. You can't pull over and change a tire. It's also dangerous; there are a thousand ways to die if something goes wrong.

We have some the best minds in the country running our space program. 17 people have lost their lives in almost 40 years. Everyone of those people fought a 100 others for the chance to go. I think that's an excellant record. NASCAR's is not that good.

I don't deny NASA has a good record ... and does amazing things ... what seems to get lost is often what happens in a large corporation ... the basics get pushed aside for schedules, etc.

one understands the potential for catastrophic failure on liftoff ... and no human can be expected to catch everything ... hence, checklists, redundancy, etc. ... (as you obviously know) ...

the tiles are such a critical element for re-entry, potentially unsurvivable indeed in case of even relatively small losses that I'm shocked there's very little capability to even give the bird a "once-over" while in orbit ...