Uneasy Pleistocene Leftover
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Gone, but not forgotten apparently?! All forums marked "Private"...
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I have read the FAQ, while useful, it does not offer any satisfactory answers. Some notable points it contains and I quote are:
1) "...one of the tasks assigned to the STS-107 crew was to take photographs of the
External Tank immediately after tank separation to see just what broke off, where it broke loose, and how big it really was. Those photos were taken, but sadly they will probably not be recoverable."
2) "Even if there had been some suspicions, there was simply no way for the crew to perform any sort of check of the underside of the shuttle."
3) "...an EVA was simply not possible as there was no EVA airlock."
4) "...the Shuttle program manager specifically stated that the crew had no capabilities to to tile repairs." (original typographic errors)
5) "...in this flight, the shuttle did not have the docking system to dock to the station." (the station being the ISS)
What one is forced to conclude is that even if the cause of the disaster was damage sustained to the heat-shield in the incident at launch, there was no way of verifying its' condition in-flight. Even if the damage could have been verified soon after, there was no way for repairs to be effected. Even if there had been a way to launch another shuttle in a resue attempt, or to divert the shuttle to the ISS, there would still have been no rescue due to the lack of the EVA airlock and docking system because of the original mission constraints.
It sounds like the builders and operators of the Titanic not only believed their vessel was unsinkable but that even when the vessel was struck, decided not to launch any lifeboats at all, and sending an SOS would have been an entire waste of effort.