NASA releases 400 page report on Columbia accident

[Paul Allen]

The grandkids are spending the night tonight. God love them, but the rascals turned the thermostat up to 85 before they went to bed. I didn't catch it until I woke up feeling like a broasting chicken.

Now that's funny!

 

[Geico266]

Now that's funny!

You gotta love grandkids.

It wasn't funny at the time, I thought I was going through menopause.

 

[Geico266]

I'll have to ask again to be sure, but I'm almost positive that they had no way of doing that inspection before the accident.

Never mind - I knew there was a reason the arm wouldn't work, and now I know what it was: The arm wasn't even on board.

This supports my point. NASA did not have a plan to inspect for damage prior to rentry. This should have been (and certainly is now) a part of the check list for getting ready for reentry.

Do you fly without a preflight? How about pre-landing? Everyone knew what would happen if the tiles failed, even back in the Gemini days. There was no "pre-entry" inspection proceedure of the life saving tiles before reentry. IMHO this was a huge mistake in judgement by NASA engineers and management.

I totally agree about the Monday morning QB thing, and I'm not bashing NASA, but when I look at the situation from a pilot's view things could have been done better. We can all do things better.