I entered a post on the other shuttle thread indicating that the Reliability of the shuttle degrades with every launch. NASA may make welding repairs to engine plumbing but they do nothing to determine if there is structural degradation. The Columbia accident investigation is more open and transparent than the Challenger accident and if it is proven that the thermal tiles were damaged during transition to orbit then NASA will have to accept full responsibility which they did not on Challenger.
I personally believe that NASA was not completely forthcoming relative to the cause for the Challenger accident. If anyone wishes to question me regarding this statement I will gladly post my reasoning. It can be done on this thread or on a new thread.
