If NASA had realized there was a problem there are many other hypothetical alternatives like staying in orbit longer, going to the international space station, sending up a another space shuttle or Russian rockets with empty space escape pods like the one pod that is attached to the international space station now for use in an emergency. Solutions could have been found if the problem had been detected. David Brown while in orbit did take pictures of the left wing for some reason but didn't transmit them to earth and of course they were lost with the ship. In a message dated 2/8/03 9:57:33 AM Eastern Standard Time, sgflack@prodigy.net writes: << Bob, I believe NASA has already established that this mission was neither equipped nor trained for a space walk. They have said many times that, even if they did find a problem with the wing or with the tiles, they would have no mechanical recourse by which to address it. The best thing they might have done was alter its reentry orientation to shield the damage with the rest of the craft long enough to get it through the most dangerous part of reentry. And that was, at best, a gamble with sorry odds. It seems they may have been doomed from the beginning. >>
