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.

[Denver Ditdat]

There have been so many stupid posts on this thread that I fear we will never be able to criticize Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Mars) for her total ignorance of space.

Hear, hear.

Over the years I have come to believe that many (or perhaps even most) Americans slept, doodled, or daydreamed through their public school science classes.

This thread is another data point that reinforces that opinion.

[P-Marlowe]

I didn't say it would be easy. I was just stating that it could have been done. Americans can accomplish miracles if they put the collective minds to it. But not if we don't try.

[HairOfTheDog]

Thank you! There are lots of fair people on this thread. Many who are patient enough to wait for real answers!

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

There are lots of fair people on this thread. Many who are patient enough to wait for real answers!

Yes, as I have read further I see that. The beginning of the thread was discouraging. Thank goodness it got better.

[Poohbah]

I didn't say it would be easy. I was just stating that it could have been done. Americans can accomplish miracles if they put the collective minds to it. But not if we don't try.

The guy who's saying it isn't one of the guys who actually has to do the work.

The issue is that you'd probably shortcut so many safety checks that you're now running a significant risk of losing the second shuttle in the process.

The attitude that says "we can launch a shuttle in a week" is exactly the same "ho-hum, spaceflight is routine" attitude that everyone is kvetching about NASA having...

[myrabach]

That is not emotional baggage at all... NASA personnel described the astronauts as "super heros" ... not my words.

[TheDon]

Your analogies are not relevant to the question at hand. Go take your medication. :)

[Denver Ditdat]

Not true. They could have waited for the next shuttle to get them (leaving the Columbia in orbit).

Your screen name is very appropriate.

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

Yep a bunch of 'RETARDS' them people at NASA.... but the TARDShow must go on.....

LOL !!!!! Hi D......LTNS

[mhking]

your new NASA Administrator has failed to recognize the eminent space shuttle danger

No, he should have lobbied Congress to install airbags. That way it would have been 100% foolproof.

"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous - with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." --Q

[bvw]

Sure it's emotional ... we're talking about technical, engineering issues. You brought in the term "super heros" -- what do you mean by it, in the contect of this discussion.

[deport]

Hi back atcha....... Yep them 'RETARDS' over at NASA, if'n they had a brain they'd take it out and play wid'it, along with others.

[The FRugitive]

Well they should stock them on the shuttle next to the spare tire.

[anniegetyourgun]

I think #514 is definitive evidence that nothing TLBSHOW has to say can be taken seriously, or given any credibility. It's probably best not to encourage such an imbalanced individual.

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

You're right. If the folks at NASA had any sense at all, they would realize that there is a gold mine of superior scientific intellect sitting right here at Free Republic AND they give advice for free.

Maybe they are unaware of what they're missing. Should we call someone?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

How dare you doubt TLB's "special purpose"!

He sees truths that the rest of us are unable to see. For instance, he was able to see that the space shuttle Columbia never should have taken off...

(immediately after it disintegrated).

[Poohbah]

A classic quote.

LIFE is dangerous. How many folks have gotten out of it alive?

[anniegetyourgun]

I know, I know. Heck, he laid claim to 'omniscience' on another thread earlier.

[brooklin]

Columbia didn't have the docking equipment on board and the shuttle was to heavy with all the science experiment stuff on it to get up to the stations altitude. The only thing that might have saved these people was to abort before they reached orbit. But... who's going to make the call fast enough so that this craft could have landed in Spain or Madegascar.

[myrabach]

The term "super heros" was a term used by a NASA representative on Saturday. This is how the astronauts are viewed by those at NASA. If the astronauts have this place in the minds of those at NASA... why would NASA treat them as "routine"?

The way we perceive our work and the people we work with certainly impacts the decisions we make. I submit that the way this "community" interacted with one another, takes on a whole other dimension in which the people at NASA would have done everything possible to successfully bring those 7 back safely.

These missions are not only technical and engineering, but human as well. To discount that makes the decision makers at NASA something less than human and nothing in any of the evidence convinces me that is the case.