[capitan_refugio]

Good science, bones. Hypothesize, test, analyze, conclude, and re-hypothesize. That is how NASA should be doing it. I only wish they had considered some "worst case" scenarios before they brought those poor souls home.

[bonesmccoy]

Thanks for the positive comments.

Even if the NASA-contractor team considered "worst-case" scenarios, there is nothing that either could do.

If the team decided that the vehicle could not reenter, they could not launch the next vehicle without understanding the failure which occured at launch. If they simply launched Discovery to rendezvous/rescue with Columbia, they would have risked the entire STS program without knowing what part failed on the 107 launch.

The team did the right thing. Bring OV-102 in and hope for the best.