Lots of good points & discussion here chaps. (circumstances excluded of course)
arcniz
As much as I'd love to believe that what you have written was a conspiracy theorists gibberish, I sadly believe that you may be right on the money here. It was one of the first things El Presidente did after the event, get mo' money from Congress. Perhaps throwing money at NASA isn't the only solution & the real problems are inherent, as you stated. (Again, I don't wish to diminish what's happened, but I'm assuming the problems at NASA were there all along)
SaturnV
How sadly ironic that in an effort to be environmentally friendly, they may have inadvertantly doomed this mission. Especially considering how much emphasis they are putting on the toxicity of the debris! (I imagine there are other motives here though)
Lots of suggested solutions are just not technologically possible at the moment. It's just like riding a giant trampoline, once at the top of the arc, there's not much else the orbiter can do(manouverability wise) prior to it's descent. Lets hope their sacrifice provides the stimulus to take the next step.
Forgot to put this in...
Did anyone else see the footage of what was purported to be the left wing in orbit during this mission? It looked like the wing root area, but I'd have thought the angles were all wrong. Regardless of that, it showed a definate dent in one section & a crack in another. Does anyone know if NASA has made a statement on this?