NASA Shuttle Decision: No Repair Needed

This the same old NASA thinking. The kind of thinking that didn’t inspect the gash in Columbia. They should go ahead with an attempted repair and evaluate the patch. This so they can at least have tried it once. According to their own testing, it didn’t make it worse. Sometimes NASA forgets that they are explorers. “Prudent” was the operative word suggested by one of NASA’s contractors. I’m hoping they all return safely.

Ruling on the side of prudence and caution used to be the NASA way but for the past ten years it has been increasingly driven by politics and empire builders inside NASA.
Must be they have no confidence in their supposed repair materials probably made for NASA in China to save a buck.

As a former high reliability test and failure isolationist on the manned and unmanned launch vehicles this problem is in an area of profession I have not professionally worked in I must leave the final decision up to the professionals in that area of expertise and NASA, however I am very dismayed for it appears that many missteps have occurred which hopefully will now be closed. I have considered a few options for treatment of the foam other than what we are using now, but I have zero idea if those are usable, and I hope NASA will return to that sort of research and development. In 1989 or there abouts I introduced a short treatise through U.S. Representative Patricia Nell Scott Schroeder of Colorado what appears to be the “Orion” project, and pushed it again many times with U.S. senator McCain and others. Being a key insider, with background about what is happening in NASA and the political arena it is very difficult to accomplish even the simple issues because of the nature and behavior of our system. For the crew of Endeavour I certainly believe all has been done that can be done and I do not believe you are in serious danger. I thank ABC news for the coverage of this most important matter, and the people for their remarkable posting.

So NASA is “cautiously optimistic” about the safe return of this shuttle.
Like we were “cautiously optimistic” that the structurally deficient bridge in Minneapolis wouldn’t fall down.
Like Mr. Murray was “cautiously optimistic” that retreat mining wouldn’t bite him in the butt.
Like we are “cautiously optimistic” that lead paint on Chinese toys, toxic chemicals in Chinese food products, etc, etc, won’t kill many of us or our pets.
NASA is whistling in the dark on this, and have so much as admitted that keeping on schedule is why they’re blowing off the repair.
In the first two shuttle catastrophes, the losses were total surprises. If this one burns up on reentry, NASA won’t be able to say they didn’t see it coming, and there will be hell to pay.
This looks like the absolute worst kind of group-think, and suggests that NASA hasn’t learned a thing from past mistakes. Some of the statements NASA has made publicly about this are appalling.
Cross your fingers for the crew of Endeavor.

Well, I certainly hope that the NASA engineers are correct in their assessments of the damaged tiles. I realize that any repairs could do more damage in the long run than not doing them, but I still have to wonder if NASA is taking the correct course of action.

STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!! Even though that area is exposed to less heat than the wings, the additional drag friction will heat it up more. I know NASA has probably factored this in but dang we don’t need another disaster. That’s a big hole on the ship!! Dumb!!

Durham’s rock hard putty even works in space?

Will this be our second teacher lost on a space shuttle?

If we lose all telemetry on re-entry then the answer would be “We should have repaired the tile”.

Everybody take a few more whacks at the NASA piñata. We’re all so superior, aren’t we? Our intellectual capabilities far exceed the training, education & experience of those stupid aerospace engineers. Yes, these sensitive comments which offer condolences to the families of the Endeavour crew are so instructive, caring & helpful. MENSA is calling, they’ve rejected your application.
NASA is STILL grieving the loss of the Columbia crew. They were family & friends. Their sacrifice has helped to enact critical improvements to assess the seriousness of damage to the orbiter. Now, with the aid of numerous cameras, detailed analysis & INDEPENDENT review inspections are conducted by large teams of experts. This damage is not the iceberg for the Titanic, but an ice cube.
A non-critical repair in space would be risky, possibly creating GREATER DAMAGE that WOULD jeopardize the crew. Why doesn’t anybody comprehend the science? NASA puts the SAFETY of the crew FIRST. Would you hang out a moving vehicle to repair a rock chip to your windshield? I fear some of the morons on this message board would!

See the propaganda and listen to the few rational minds on this comment board. trust hem because you ave no real say in i anyway and that idiot who wrote about “Your souses will be missed” is as sensitive and inteligent as a BLUNT AXE. To be truhful if I wee one of the spouses of on of he endeavor’s crew I would consider you one who would rather sign the whole crew’s death warrant then see them come home safely just to prove your amazingly BIASED comments ^.^ GL all

“These vehicles are the most up to date and constantly modified spacecraft flying in the world.”
Wrong, Space Shuttles may be only made 35 years ago, but it’s still 40 year old technology in them. They’re definately not up to date.
“The shuttle has had much worse damage to it on a number of other flights and has landed with no problems.”
And the Discovery was around this size hole, I presume. It all depends WHERE the damage is.
“Stop speculating, write your congress and get more funding so NASA isn’t on a shoestring budget and HELP make the situation better.”
Because a few letters to congress will definately fix their budget. We’re not whining by the way, we’re throwing our 2¢ out there.

NASA’s record on shuttle safety is abysmal. It appears that contrary to the recommendation of the review board after the Columbia disaster which occurred a mere four years ago, NASA did not design an effective repair mechanism for the shuttle, just as they have done absolutely nothing about the foam problem. If they had an effective repair mechanism, why wouldn’t they use it?
Mr. Potter: why aren’t you raising the alarm on this? In fact, where is the news media in general on this? How can John Shannon say that the engineers were unanimous that repairs were not needed, and then say, “an engineering group in Houston thought it would be, in Shannon’s word, ‘prudent’ to send astronauts out to fill the damaged spot with a sealant material.” Were these Engineers in Houston uninformed, or incompetent, or just a bunch of overreactors?. Regardless, the implication that the decision not to repair was “unanimous,” is clearly inaccurate. Perhaps you, Mr. Potter, could interview these engineers and obtain their uncensored views.
It appears that whenever these kinds of decisions are made at NASA, the engineers and scientists are informed in advance of the “correct” answer. The pressure to go along is absolutely immense as demonstrated in a doumentary on the Columbia disaster broadcast on NGC that aired last year titled “Columbia’s Last Flight.”
I would hope that someone at the White House would look into this. Losing another crew, including another school teacher would be indefensible.
An earlier commenter asked, “Would you hang out of a moving vehicle to repair a rock chip to your windshield?” That is an absurd comparison, but the answer is that if I knew there was a significant risk that my vehicle would become a raging fireball and incinerate me. I would use any means available to reduce or eliminate that risk.
For the sake of the nation and the families, I hope someone will go beyond the press releases to determine if this is really a deadly game of Russian Roulette.