Within hours of this terrible disaster there were some on FR claiming that the disaster was the result of NASA’s incompetence, that the disaster was avoidable and that the cover up had already began. They have offered up memo’s, doctored photos and wild rumor as evidence. In order to be true than we must also assume that the seven astronauts who died were fools or somehow duplicitous in their own deaths. Are we expected to believe that the knowledge of a few rumor mongers on the internet is greater then that of those who flew on Challenger?
Are we to believe that these seven astronauts were not aware of the foam problems on the shuttle program or the effects of budget cuts on the program? Are we to believe that they were foolish enough to fly a platform into space that was doomed from the beginning as some on FR claim?
If we accept their speculation then we must also assume that their fellow astronauts, walking the woodlands of east Texas looking for their remains, will not seek to discover the real cause of their deaths, but will work to cover up for NASA. Do you really believe this?
Is this what we’ve come to on FR? This doesn’t just smear NASA, it smears the seven brave people we honor today.
You find this embarassing? This is the product of your logic? I do feel sorry for you.
No, it doesn't smear our brave space explorers one bit to try to sort out information to get to the bottom of this tragedy. Mistakes have been made and it isn't wrong to try to find out who made them or what went wrong.
It seems fairly obvious that the tiles were damaged by the collision with the foam. The fact that there were no previous fatalities upon reentry may serve as a grounds for complacency. Not gross complacency, but NASA gambled, perhaps rightly so, that the shuttle would probably reenter without a glitch, as all of the orbiters had done in the past.
It seems clear at this point that the camera-equipped mechanical arm, nor the SS docking equipment should have been left behind.