the space shuttle won't survive entry. w/b/s

Breathe. Again. Again. Okay, deep breath. Now you can type - just keep your teeth gritted, etc.

Okay.

You may be surprised to hear that emails like those linked to above are a common happening in the program - it's called thinking out of the box. Everyone throws around ideas and possible problems and possible solutions, even when there isn't a mission in flight. Really. It's part of the whole program - always thinking about what might go wrong and how to rectify and/or prevent that incident.

I am glad that these emails have been made public, because they show that the engineers and technicians and other personnel are constantly thinking about the safety of the crew, those on the ground, and the vehicle. And I do mean "constantly." NO ONE in NASA would have given the command for the de-orbit burns on that Saturday morning if there had been any real concern for the safety of the crew or the orbiter. Period. NASA would have gone into full-safety mode and everyone would have been working on getting them safely back on the earth. 24/7 until they were safe.

I am upset that these emails have been made public because the media and the public are grasping on to them as being some sort of "smoking gun" (yeah, the website fits) and assuming that these emails were intentionally ignored and that the seven crewmembers were sacrificed out of ignorance. C'mon here, people. If ANYONE in the command center, in the launch center, in any of the various aerospace organizations had any real concern about the state of the left wing of the orbiter, that news would have been relayed up the chain of command, FAST, and alternate landing scenarios would have immediately been put into play.

These emails circulate all of the time - it's how problems are solved - usually before a problem occurs. It's a "What If" scenario being played-out between engineers and technicians and so forth. These scenarios are always occurring - they're encouraged, in fact, because they do help to increase the safety and success-rate of the manned and unmanned space programs. They keep everyone talking and thinking about safety and prevention of problems - that is the first mission of every worker in the program.
Today there are literally thousands of people who are looking back at what they did before, during, and after the last launch of Columbia. They are mentally tearing themselves apart in grief and frustration and wondering if it was something that *they* did that led to the deaths. They're being called forth to testify about what they knew then and what they did then and what they would do differently now. All of their emails are being searched, as well as written notes, doodles, and logged phone calls. And the basic fact remains that, in all likelihood, there was nothing that could have been done.

It was an accident. And accidents happen. The glaring fact that most people were unaware that there was a mission in orbit, that the ISS has been permanently manned for 2 1/2 years, shows how routine space travel and exploration has become. It's no longer big news. And that testifies to the fact that NASA has done amazingly well to keep an antiquated group of shuttles flying safely and without incident, regardless of heavily curtailed budgets and lack of public and political support from many fronts. I think that the NASA and support personnel need our support right now.

There's a license-plate frame that one sees out at the Cape. It's only available to those people who maintain, refurbish, and launch the shuttles. It reads simply The Space Shuttle Team - Doing What Others Dream. They are an amazing group of people who believe whole-heartedly in what they are doing. They have to - they're underpaid and underfunded and undersupported and underrated. But they believe in the promise of space exploration and give thanks for being able to work on some of the most amazing scientific and engineering feats of our lifetimes.

They would never have let Columbia re-enter the atmosphere if they'd thought there was any safety concern outside the realm of the acceptable limits. They're horrified at what happened and every one of them is double-thinking their actions and decisions. Gossip and whispered and implied accusations are unfair to these people - these emails are but one part of a much larger puzzle that is only just now being formed. Have some respect for them, please.

I have to second this. I didn't even realize a shuttle was up until it didn't come back...

Spaceflight is HARD. Lots of things can (and probably will) go wrong. The best you can do is learn from mistakes and accidents and keep going.

I might be one of the few folks outside of NASA that did know there was a shuttle up. I usually have the video/audio stream up during the day whenever there's a flight and subscribe to the always handy Southern California Launch Alert. When my scanner was working, I used to listen to the JPL rebroadcast of audio from the Mt. Wilson repeater.

I actually woke up early to see the re-entry pass over California, but it was too overcast, so I went back to bed, though a friend of mine in Huntington Beach did see it.