BREAKING: NBC News finds Jan 30 NASA Memo showing serious concern about tile damage!

NBC News | February 3, 2003 | Jay Barbree

[Timesink]

Developing. Watch MSNBC for latest. Internal memo shows some engineers believe there was up to a 7 1/2-inch gash from the foam breakoff at launch. Memo was serious enough to go out to all NASA centers two days before disaster.

[princess leah]

I am reminded of a line from Apollo XIII when the crew is arguing about whether NASA knew something:

"...they've got half the Ph.d's on the Planet working on this problem, Jack"

[Chad Fairbanks]

I feel like I'm dealing with my kids... repeating myself until I'm blue in the face... I bet others are feeling even MORE frustrated... I've worked on Medical Telemetry systems currently in use on both the shuttle AND the ISS - but I don't run around claiming to be an expert... :0)

God... I hate mondays....

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for the info on the press conference! Hope the reporters did their homework and ask intelligent questions!

[Atlas Sneezed]

The "top hat" is probably an added arrow symbol to point to the damage in the photo. Because the pto has nee reproduced and converted several times, it gives the impression of being *in* the photo, when it probably isn't.

[PhiKapMom]

My three kids are easier to deal with then what I have seen on here!

This Monday in particular!

[The FRugitive]

"There was no way to repair any damage."

I thought I heard somewhere that the tiles could be repaired in space.

[Fred Mertz]

If this happened in the civilian sector, there would probably be negligent homicide charges filed at some point in the investigation. I doubt that will happen with NASA.

[TLBSHOW]

I see no comment which shows that you could care less. More lock stepping.

[KeepUSfree]

Do ANY of you people actually read a thread before putting in your uninformed, stupid opinions. For about the 10th time in THIS thread alone - let me summarize:

THEY COULD NOT GO TO THE ISS - The Columbia is too heavy and is not equipped to dock with the ISS and did NOT have the fuel to get there.

THEY COULD NOT FIX IT WITH A FIX-A-FLAT -Tile repair kit: - The space walk tethers are not long enough to reach the area. They do not carry extra tiles (each of which is unique...so they'd have to carry duplicates of all of them!). in addition the tiles are fragile and they would be worried about doing additional damage

THEY COULD NOT "JUST WAIT THERE FOR ANOTHER SHUTTLE": Resources are limited. They are in SPACE. For you limited types....that means there is no air....They take it with them and manufacture it. You can't just roll another shuttle out there and launch it. It takes "about 20 days"....and that is if they REALLY rush it - in fact - it would rush it so much as to endanger another crew. And, as ANYONE who has ever worked in rescue situations knows, the first rule is that you DO NOT MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE by endangering even more lives. And, even IF they could get another shuttle there...how would they transfer from one to the other.??? You can't just pull over, get out and get in the other shuttle like it is a mini-van picking up your kids soccer team. Shuttles are not designed to "mate"..

Interestingly, I knew NONE of this. Howevere, before posting my own ignorant opinion, I ACTUALLY READ the informed facts of other posters before filling the thread with my own useless drivel....unlike so many others here.

The bottom line is...SPACE FLIGHT IS INHERENTLY DANGEROUS. THESE ARE NOT THE FIRST - NOR WILL THEY BE THE LAST ASTRONAUTS WE LOSE TRYING TO PUSH THE LIMITS OF HUMANITY

Also, do you whiners have ANY IDEA how many test pilots are killed each year while "pushing the envelope". I doubt it - it's not covered 24/7 like when a shuttle goes down. So, since you know nothing about it - you don't bitch. Ignorance IS bliss!! Does that mean the Air Force or navy is mismanaged?? Should all new flight testing be stopped??

Nobody is asking you to go up there or to take responsibility for anyone else being there. Just shut your mouths when you have no idea about what you speak.

[Poohbah]

YEAH BUT..what's the use of having a "space station" if it can't be used in an emergency?

Then you're limiting every shuttle flight to one that is on the same orbital plane as the ISS...

This ain't a vehicle that you can fix with a Hefty Bag and some duct tape.

And I'm sure if enough scientist, and engineers put their brains to work, they could come up with a way to temporarily repair tile damage in space.

And if a shuttle is "too heavy" to reach space station, it should be mothballed and maybe put in a space museum.

Please read up on orbital mechanics before making such assertions. It is a question of orbital and vehicle parameters (inclination, plane, altitude, and available fuel) that determines this.

Specific missions make it impossible for the Shuttle to reach the space station. Among other things, if you want to use the Shuttle to fix a satellite not in the orbital plane of the Space Station, then you're going to have to accept not being able to reach the Space Station in an emergency.

[Quilla]

Free Republic's original thread on the shuttle landing is being heralded throughout the media and the internet as an emotional timeline, both informative and heart rendering. I pray these same outlets do not get a hold of this thread. The accusations and innuendos about NASA's complicit involvement in the deaths of these seven astronauts is appalling.

[Dave S]

That's pathetic govt. employee ass-covering. How about: leave shuttle in orbit, send second shuttle to fix first then reenter both send astronauts to space station for pickup by second shuttle effect ad-hoc repairs via a spacewalk (they carry some tiles one assumes)

Are you really that ignorant? Have you avoided reading anything on this thread prior to posting? It would have taken weeks or months to launch another shuttle if safety was set aside. The Columbia had life support good till Wednesday.

They couldnt have gone to the Internation Space Station because they didnt have the fuel. If they got there, they couldnt dock because they didnt have a docking collar and they didnt have a teether to allow them to do a space walk.

They dont carry any tiles. Why would they? They cant put them on in space and they have to be cut to very fine tolerances or otherwise they will burn off during re-entry. Sound familiar. An additional reason they dont have any tiles is because they were already overloaded with science experiments and couldnt carry any excess weight which the tiles would certainly be since they had to no way to go outside and glue them on. THINK

[Man of the Right]

Come on. NASA hasn't prepared for a shuttle-to-shuttle rescue requiring an unplanned launch on a one-week turnaround, docking or tethering and an EVA involving an entire Shuttle crew. What have you been smoking?

Prior to Saturday, they were hard put to launch a mission every three months with four Shuttles.

[TheDon]

It doesn't fly with me either. They should never have launched a shuttle with no possible positive outcome to tiles damaged at launch. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. This type of operational mistake is not part of that "acceptable risk" associated with space flight.

[Howlin]

Read it? Aren't you the kidder!

[Rebelbase]

"Or it's an old pic of the MIER."

Hmmm....I did'nt know the Israelis had a space station.

[myrabach]

And where were we in out "duty" before this tragedy? Were you so concerned about "OUR ship"? Seems to me there is much more information about the Super Bowl than about OUR ship being lauched into space with OUR people on board.

Most of us here, myself included, could have cared less about this flight and had it landed without incident, I wonder how many threads would have generated concern our OUR ship.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"Retired astronaut Gene Cernan said last night, it was better they didn't know of a potential problem. They had a good flight, they were happy, and nothing could have been done to repair damage. He also said they could not have hooked up to the space station because they were on a different course."

It is inhuman to deny people the chance to say goodbaye to loved ones.

[Desdemona]

The Apollo-XIII crew survived what was previously analyzed to be a certain death scenario,

Please, for the love of God, QUIT COMPARING THIS TO APOLLO 13.

The systems are completely different. The problems encountered on the Apollo mission were "fixable" because there was an extra module to use. The mission was aborted more or less. BUT, the question of re-entry was still there. They lucked out, considering they came in shallow. They could have bounced off the atmosphere and have been lost. The heat shield held, which was a miracle.

In this case, if it was the tiles, and a big enough one was damaged - and if they knew about it (which I'm still not quite convinced), they rolled the dice on the best option.

This is space flight, not a drive to the store.

[Alberta's Child]

Simply sending them into Earth and crossing their fingers is a big no no.

"Crossing fingers" is not the way NASA works. You have to consider that based on what they knew at the time, the odds of them returning safely in a "risky" re-entry like this may have been much higher than the odds of a successful rescue mission in space that had never been considered before.