[SarahW]

They would have weeks more if they had visualised the damage right away. I won't accept there was nothing they could or would have tried, either.

If there was nothing they could do in this kind of event. maybe we *should* have managed to go for a few years without the spiders in space while they figure out how to develop a backup plan.

[agincourt1415]

You need to understand, at 12,000 miles per hour, if only one tile had been hit and damaged other tiles on reentry would have peeled off, the damage on the ascent wouldn't have set off any alarm bells, because the Shuttle has landed before with tiles missing, it was a chain of circumstances, unfortunate and now we learn that tiles are not a safe skin to have on the Shuttle.

They will probably have to reopen the National Aerospace Plane Program, and severly limit the number of astronauts on the the Shuttle.

[DoughtyOne]

The shuttle has been in service for twenty years, but NASA would have us to believe that no contingency plan has ever been drawn up that would see the next launch put under a crash plan to save seven lives. Either they are lying or they are the most incompetent agency known to man.

[southland]

Maybe they could have waited until next trip to take the spiders. Spiders that I have know would not have cared one way or another.

[Cold Heat]

*should* have managed to go for a few years without the spiders in space while they figure out how to develop a backup plan.

Do you make sure your undies are clean before leaving the house and getting into a car?

Some things are just ridiculous over-reaching and asinine behavior.

[Howlin]

I won't accept there was nothing they could or would have tried, either.

Huh. Have you called NASA with YOUR solution then?

BTW, if you had watched the press conference today you'd know that after all their testing and brainstorming, they decided it was NOTHING that was detrimental to the shuttle.

How dare you insinuate that the people at NASA didn't care enough about their own astronauts. Because that IS what you're doing.