Sorry if this is slightly out of context but I have decided that this thread will deal with the technical discussion of the Columbia disaster. Please use the Shuttle Columbia breaks up during re-enry thread for emotional/condolence type posts. [edited]
I cannot understand why you guys are all so uncritical of the Shuttle
missions.
They are serve no scientific purpose at all.
The technology is old. The "experiments" conducted on board are
laughably trivial; mainly for high school teaching programs ("let's
see what happens to watercress when we grow it in microgravity").
Not a single piece of scientific research from a Shuttle mission has
ever appeared in a decent peer-reviewed scientific journal; it all
goes into mediocre NASA house journals. The whole thing is a
preposterous waste of money.
Unmanned vehicles are safer, cheaper and have produced stunning
scientific discoveries.
The real tragedy of yesterday's accident is that seven highly
talented and courageous individuals lost their lives for a
completely pointless trip into space; the international space station
is an adult equivalent of building a tree house.