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Pastimes : Shuttle Columbia STS-107 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James F. Hopkins who wrote (389)	2/6/2003 8:42:20 AM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 627

Jim, Is there any reason to believe that NASA will become immune to what happens inside large union/government beurocracies.? Their fixations are usually wages, benefits and perks. The usual chack and balances you would find ina civilain company are gone. Dead wood cannot be fired, it can only be promoted. Now this is a harsh thing to say, but what can I say when a disaster like this happens and several precautionary methods could have been done. Mainly magnified shots of underbelly from the space station and from earth based clear air sites. Space station would probably give best view, zero atmospheric distortion if could well have given a forwarning. If that was done early on, yes many days to figure something out. Another shuttle can be launched on 1 weeks notice with no payload and a shortened countdown/checkout. Send someone outside in a spacesuit on a tether with a camera. Surely they have that ability. Just a rope, not an umbilical(which may be shorter) I assume the space suits have an hour or so of air. It is sad that these things were not done. It is also sad that this brekage of foam has been allowed to persist. Have they not heard of fiberglass winding? A layer of oriented strand fiberglass wound over the foam and then followed by a layer of biinder to skin it and bind the glass. Of coues we sit in our living rooms and criticise. It is a lot harder to sit in their shoes. Over the next few weeks we will get some leaks from lower level people that will reveal a lot. Bill