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.

[TLBSHOW]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834673/posts?page=

[anniegetyourgun]

Sadly...even if true, there is almost nothing that could have been done once launched. I hope we can learn for the future.

[Timesink]

Jay Barbree emphasizes that there would still have been nothing that could have been done, even if the gash was that big, no matter how much of a ruckus would have been made.

[Timesink]

Ooh, thanks for that link. I never saw that one. That's a nasty looking photo.

[TLBSHOW]

Don A. Nelson

NASAProblems.com

http://www.nasaproblems.com/

In a letter to the White House, Don Nelson, who served with NASA for 36 years until he retired in 1999, wrote to President George W. Bush warning that his "intervention" was necessary to "prevent another catastrophic space shuttle accident."

[Timesink]

Gash possibly 7 1/2 FEET long, 7 1/2 INCHES wide.

[TLBSHOW]

This could of been prevented.

[volchef]

This is so sad. These poor people were dead just seconds after liftoff.....they just didn't know it. My heart is just breaking. I grew up on the space coast and I am just aching over this.

[TLBSHOW]

Feet or inches? Is the posting wrong?

[Iwentsouth]

WOW!

[BureaucratusMaximus]

BREAKING: NBC News finds Jan 27 NASA Memo showing serious concern about tile damage!

Another prime example of big government working toward the benefit of us all.

Funded by the taxpayers of the United States of America.

[P-Marlowe]

If there were serious concerns they should have left them in orbit until they were able to send up some kind of rescue vehicle, whether it be another shuttle or a russian caspule, whetever. The non-military people could have been evacuated. They could have squeezed them into the space station. There was no need to bring the shuttle back until they were convinced that it was safe.

If anyone in authority on the ground knew this was going to be a problem and did not notify the crew members, then he or she should be prosecuted for murder.

Let us hope that this is not true.

[alisasny]

OK if NASA did try to make the astronauts aware of their pending demise and also us on Earth, what good would have came out of that. I cant even imagine the horror of having another Apollo 13 type event in which the outcome is death.

And for all you who think Nasa could have done something lets go through possible scenarios....:

[strela]

My question is: Was Columbia's crew told about this? Is it routine to tell orbiter crews about strikes on the outside of the vessel during launch? A careful review of all comms during the mission might be in order.

[July 4th]

Let's all remember it's easy to Monday morning quarterback. Could they have done something? Perhaps not, with their non-existent tile repair kit. "They knew," and "why didn't they fix it?" are not productive comments right now.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Well, at least the Democrats don't control the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee anymore.

[Cynderbean]

Isn't there still the option to abort the flight after launch before the shuttle leaves the earths atmosphere? I know that time is short in that margin but it seems there would be some sort of contingency or emergency procedures that would apply.

[OXENinFLA]

Is that the Wing? That doesn't look like a wing.

[JustPiper]

Were there not 2-3 delays, did the Columbia take off when it was suppose to?