[Bobby777]

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 ...

[John Jamieson]

"the basics get pushed aside for schedules"

No, they don't, I worked there for 27 years, where were you when you saw this problem?