what would they have done if they had found the damage in orbit? obvously they couldn't stay in orbit indefinitely to attempt to fix it. would they have gone to the space station and stayed there and sent another shuttle up to get them? if so, what would have become of the damaged shuttle? i'd hope they'd send repair materials up with the second shuttle, but even then what kind of repair could be done in space to make it safe for reentry? i've been facinated with the space program since i was a kid (incidentally, the columbia first launched the year i was born, i was really sad when i heard it had broken up)
it's a shame crap like beaurocracy (sp?) kept this from being prevented, whereas the Challenger disaster was more of an engineering problem, IIRC. beaurocracy was the reason i quit working at Home Depot, and probably one of the big things in this world that really tick me off, and things like this make me even more angry/sad about the future of humans in space.
oh well, hopefully we'll try again soon and get it right, maybe we need a new shuttle design, seeing as this one is over 2 decades old (i don't remember when they started building them)..
*hangs head in moment of silence for the Columbia and her crew, and sheds a few tears* |
