[yonif]

I don't buy it that nothing could have been done. THey should at least tried other means and ways to get them back safe. Just like in Apollo 13, they tried and tried. They had at least a week. Simply sending them into Earth and crossing their fingers is a big no no.

[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.