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Roger that on the search, BUT...

Regardless of the actual cause of the "accident", evidence has come to light that NASA knew of the high probability of tile failure at launch, and had devised NO RELIABLE MEANS to assess damage to the underside of the shuttle; and, thus, had NO WAY to determine the real-time necessity of mission abort. They got caught, pants down, p***s in-hand. A camera facing the bottom of the vehicle, attached to the tank-struts--or something like that--could have saved this particular crew. Instead, they relied on a computer model that told them that the shuttle was either OK or very much dead--two days after the information would have been useful. They crossed fingers, threw dice, and hoped for continued providence. OOPS.

Then there's the fact that they had neglected to provide for a "plan B" if the orbiting shuttle couldn't re-enter safely. These guys are smart?

In my mind this was inexcusable negligence--athwart the common sense available to anyone, and certainly not up to the standards set by the early mission directors. I expect better.

> ...evidence has come to light that NASA knew...

No new "evidence" is required for abundant finger pointing. The STS has always had substantial risks, only some of which were mitigated after Challenger. I was dismayed when I saw "NO COMM" during the re-entry, but not the least bit surprised.

Here's a "how come?"....
The ISS is designed for 7 crew. It is presently limited to 3 because misson safety rules require escape-to-earth capability for all on board (and the spare Soyuz holds only 3).

If the ISS rules were applied to STS (which is a much riskier system than ISS), the fleet would have been grounded years ago.

> ...neglected to provide for a "plan B"...

Here's another observation. The space race is over, and has been since the fall of the USSR, if not since 1969. Why hasn't NASA stopped running the race, paused, and created ANY kind of space rescue capability?

We are 42 years into human spaceflight. If we date the submarine age to 1900 (USS Holland), there was rescue capability less than 40 years later, and it was used 39 years into the sub age (USS Squalus).

STS has never lived up to its billing, and the cost and delays of running it not only killed Saturn V (and Skylab), but every potential replacement program.

This time, at least, there are no spare parts to build another orbiter. Doing something completely different will be cheaper.