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Annie, you nailed it. There was a Freeper on Saturday who works for NASA and made that very point. There was no way to repair any damage. If they went to the space station (if even possible) there weren't enough supplies to handle the crew, and there was no way doiwn from there short of sending another shuttle to get them.

I am leaning towards believing that what happened was not terribly surprising to some at NASA. I think they knew of the damage, and also knew they had no choice but to attempt to land and pray for the best.

One thing that makes me believe this is the failure of the Israeli astronaut to observe the Sabbath the first Friday in space. His celebration of the Sabbath had been a major story before the flight. I find it hard to believe that the astronaut, his 6 fellow crew members and the entire NASA staff just "forgot". Let's be honest.

The experiment he was doing did not require his constant attention. It has been widely discussed that there was not a single experiment on-board that actually required a human to perform. If he was preoccupied, it was something else entirely that had his attention.

Annie, you nailed it. There was a Freeper on Saturday who works for NASA and made that very point. There was no way to repair any damage. If they went to the space station (if even possible) there weren't enough supplies to handle the crew, and there was no way down from there short of sending another shuttle to get them.

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

"There was no way to repair any damage."

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