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Anonymous05/03/26, 22:48No.16969774Could they have been saved?
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Anon05/03/26, 22:53No.16969775
No.
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Anon05/03/26, 23:45No.16969792
>could a rendezvous have been attempted?
absolutely
if there was concern about not surviving reentry, they absolutely should have sent a second shuttle up, even if there was risk of the same thing happening. the risk was low enough that hundreds of launches went off without catastrophic failure (although not without damage).
instead we let the crew die in one of the most spectacular ways ever experienced.
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Anon05/04/26, 00:14No.16969808
If I were there I could have caught them.
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Anon05/04/26, 01:59No.16969840
Linda Ham killed seven astronauts and got promoted as punishment.
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Anon05/04/26, 08:40No.16969980
possibly. footage of the launch showed debris falling from the craft but there was no way to know how bad the damage was or where the debris actually came from. I forget why, but they couldnt do a physical inspection to see first hand either. They took a gamble. They could have sent another craft up to help them inspect it or bring them back but there were no commercial craft available like space x etc like there is today so it would have been a lot of red tape and very costly to do, They rolled the dice and lost
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Anon05/04/26, 08:42No.16969982
this is a really good documentary on it for anyone interestedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdezNT7TgI0good yt channel in general
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Anon05/04/26, 15:57No.16970126
Yes, if there had been a spare shuttle ready, or if in-orbit repair had been conducted, either because they carried spare tiles on board, or after a resupply mission delivered them and life support and materials for an extended stay. But apparenly it was too much to ask from NASA's risk management and no commercial space company had a launcher ready for sending supplies.
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Anon05/04/26, 19:39No.16970227
>Could they have been saved?
It was the constructive "everything has to work perfect" madness that killed 14 astronauts. With an separable command module able for reentry and land they all will be alive. But space shuttle designers stand on the shoulders of giants, captured by operation paperclip and were only able to do the one shot thing after they were gone.
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Anon05/05/26, 05:36No.16970451
>Could they have been saved?
yes it the ET had continued to be painted (but muh payload margins! the top half of the ET, at least just the shuttle facing half of it, could have continued to be coated with minimal loss of payload)
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Anon05/05/26, 06:23No.16970465
>Could they have been saved?
Yes, but NASA refused to put a repair kit on board until after this. Also, just after launch NASA engineers discovered the impact vid and asked CIA to use a satellite to take pics of the shuttle in orbit, but some woman manager at NASA directed CIA not to. With the imagery they could have evaluated the damage, had an astronaut do a space walk for more inspection and photos, and at least tried to alter the rentry to favor the non damaged wing. Why not at least try everything you can instead of just ignoring it and keeping the commander and pilot in the dark.
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Anon05/10/26, 14:25No.16973687
They survived.
>A group of Caenorhabditis elegans worms, enclosed in aluminum canisters, survived reentry and impact with the ground and were recovered weeks after the disaster.
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Anon05/10/26, 23:05No.16973900
Probably, with even just the right type of repair kit. I've fabricated basalt fiber silicon carbide laminated composites before and it is not overly challenging; many similar formulations of fiber-ceramic multi-material systems can withstand sufficient heat.
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Anon05/14/26, 22:37No.16976222
I know exactly which youtube video sparked this thread and that just adds another item to my list of reasons to hate this place