Did NASA Know Colombia Will Not Return?

[SkyeHack]

A photo of the left wing of Colombia space shuttle as taken from Colombia window camera and sent to NASA indicates a crack in the left wing. Did they know about it and didn't tell? You be the judge.

The artical (and photo) was published at Israeli 2nd biggest daily newspaper named: Maariv

for the artical, if you know hebrew.....

Maariv artical (Hebrew)

[Mr. Killjoy]

I heard the new, I guess the NASA didn't wanna stop
the mission cuz it's far too expensive

[zrepiV]

i dunno... those photos are kinda fake-ish to me. i don't think cracks would be THAT big and long, and i don't think nasa would install cameras that aren't capable of capturing true color. but, that's just my speculation.

[OK-OK]

Its all true, they knew but they taught it wouldnt do much damage.

[SkyeHack]

they were so wrong....

[OK-OK]

Yeah... lets hope they dont do the same error ever... we cant risk anything, especially when it comes to a human life.

[Mr. Killjoy]

Fot lotta ppl money is more important than anything else

[PhoenixFire]

I'm still not really convinced that pic is for real...considering the high res cameras they use up there that pic is really crappy

[Demigod]

Originally posted by Killjoy
Fot lotta ppl money is more important than anything else

I don't think that's the case. Space shuttles cost millions of dollars and training astronauts isn't easy either. I think NASA simply miscalculated the damage and underestimated its importance. They would certainly not put 7 lives in danger if they had known the shuttle was unstable.

[Mr. Killjoy]

I hope your right

>>Space shuttles cost millions of dollars and training astronauts isn't easy either

Carburant used to take of is expensive too...
BTW, I hope for the victims that itsn't a "Money Story"

[Kamina]

Well, at first nasa was saying that it was just a piece of insulation that hit the wing. I've heard other people saying it was a huge chunk of ice... Naturally I'm skeptical of both explanations this early into the investigation.

As for scrubbing a mission... It's not an easy thing to do even if engineers are telling nasa to do just that. It takes something like 6 hours to fuel the boosters with highly volatile and expensive rocket fuel. Now while money may not have been as large a factor as some say, because of the cost a lot of people have their jobs and futures on the line and that can lead to poor judgement since scrubbing a launch after fueling can cost millions.

Still, from what I hear the chunk of ice/insulation or whatever hit the wing during take-off (do correct me if I'm wrong.) Would it even be possible to safely return once the boosters fired?

[Decoy_Octopus]

well, if they knew it was messed up, once it was up there its not like they could just bring them down and fix it without it blowing up

[OK-OK]

money aint the problem... 7 people with families died and it couldve easily been prevented.

Originally posted by Decoy_Octopus
well, if they knew it was messed up, once it was up there its not like they could just bring them down and fix it without it blowing up

they couldve sent another ship to bring back the 7 people from space and fix the ship later.

[(F)ragnarok(F)]

that would cost several more millions of dollars n i dont think they're willing to do that.

[Demigod]

Originally posted by (F)ragnarok(F)
that would cost several more millions of dollars n i dont think they're willing to do that.

Well, not really. They had shuttle Atlantis ready and shuttle managers say they could have rigged up a launch in less than a week (if they forsook all testing). It wouldn't have cost them too much, since the shuttle was practically ready for launch. As I said before it wasn't about money, they just didn't think the damage was significant enough to be of any threat.

[Cons]

if the pic is true then nasa shouldnt have lunched columbia...i mean imagine the stress the shuttle has to go thru during flight. espcially returning, u have to go thru the atmosphere that will burn the ship...that is why they use things like kevlar to protect the ship, then there's this crack and still "GO FLIGHT"?
but they should be more careful now, they're nasa for crying out loud....

[Demigod]

As people already stated the damage to the left wing happaned at launch time. It is very difficult to stop a launch at such a stage, plus they didn't realize it until the next day. Plus I think the pictures are fake. I don't see how the insulating foam could have done that much damage.

[Violineb]

the pic does look fakish but if you say so I'll just believe you. Anyway, yes it's expensive to send a shuttle up. Last time I visited the Kennedy Space Center, they said it costs about $400 million for each launch. :o 0_o

[Lyrai]

In a way, I hope the pic is not a fake and it was the ice/insulation foam/whatever that caused it, and not some other error. My reason for this opinion is that before I moved across the country from Texas to Washington with my familiy, my dad worked fro a company called Cimmaron which made software for the Space Shuttle. The last couple of years there, The company really went downhill fast. The CEO/Owner quit the CEO part and turned it over to his wife, whose previous job was a kindergarden school teacher. Mind you, the software this company makes controls things like "Oxygen On/Off" and it is now being run by someone with no experience whatsoever in the field of buisness. What made it worse was that My dad's boss would tell him to break the law, and hire people who could make a rock look like Harvard Material to do the programming. Maybe I'm just extremly paranoid, but I think that Cimmaron had some part in this.

[OK-OK]

The pic is not fake cuz it appeared in every newspaper here in Montreal.