THEY COULD NOT GO TO THE ISS - The Columbia is too heavy and is not equipped to dock with the ISS and did NOT have the fuel to get there.
THEY COULD NOT FIX IT WITH A FIX-A-FLAT -Tile repair kit: - The space walk tethers are not long enough to reach the area. They do not carry extra tiles (each of which is unique...so they'd have to carry duplicates of all of them!). in addition the tiles are fragile and they would be worried about doing additional damage
THEY COULD NOT "JUST WAIT THERE FOR ANOTHER SHUTTLE": Resources are limited. They are in SPACE. For you limited types....that means there is no air....They take it with them and manufacture it. You can't just roll another shuttle out there and launch it. It takes "about 20 days"....and that is if they REALLY rush it - in fact - it would rush it so much as to endanger another crew. And, as ANYONE who has ever worked in rescue situations knows, the first rule is that you DO NOT MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE by endangering even more lives. And, even IF they could get another shuttle there...how would they transfer from one to the other.??? You can't just pull over, get out and get in the other shuttle like it is a mini-van picking up your kids soccer team. Shuttles are not designed to "mate"..
Interestingly, I knew NONE of this. Howevere, before posting my own ignorant opinion, I ACTUALLY READ the informed facts of other posters before filling the thread with my own useless drivel....unlike so many others here.
The bottom line is...SPACE FLIGHT IS INHERENTLY DANGEROUS. THESE ARE NOT THE FIRST - NOR WILL THEY BE THE LAST ASTRONAUTS WE LOSE TRYING TO PUSH THE LIMITS OF HUMANITY
Also, do you whiners have ANY IDEA how many test pilots are killed each year while "pushing the envelope". I doubt it - it's not covered 24/7 like when a shuttle goes down. So, since you know nothing about it - you don't bitch. Ignorance IS bliss!! Does that mean the Air Force or navy is mismanaged?? Should all new flight testing be stopped??
Nobody is asking you to go up there or to take responsibility for anyone else being there. Just shut your mouths when you have no idea about what you speak.
Do you really think that nothing could have been done?
They had 16 godammned days to determine if there was tile damage, and if there was, THINK UP A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM.
With an attitude like yours there would have been nothing to be done about Apollo 13 either, especially when they ran out square CO2 filters.
NASA buried its head in the sand on this.
Spy satellites could have been employed to check out the underside of the ship.
If they couldn't have gotten to the ISS, the Russians might have been able to send up a rescue ship, THEY ARE LAUNCHING A SUPPLY SHIP TO THE ISS THIS WEEK!.
The fact that no attempt was made to verify the tiles integrity is an INEXCUSABLE failure on their part.
This was a huge mistake, everybody makes them, lets not lie to ourselves
Jay Barbree emphasizes that there would still have been nothing that could have been done
Nothing could have been done?
You can bet the farm that on the next shuttle mission they will figure out a way to check the tiles before re-entry.
And if there is a problem they will AT LEAST TRY to come up with a solution instead of ignoring it and hoping it goes away.
Do ANY of you people actually read a thread before putting in your uninformed, stupid opinions?.
If you can't distinguish the between the truth and some beaurocrat trying to cover his agency with a pathetic excuse then maybe youre the one that is stupid.