Quote:
Originally posted by CC
You're correct, they had no way of repairing the damage to the tiles themselves...HOWEVER, if NASA had known how grave the danger was (which they obviously didn't at the time), they would have possibly had a few options.
First option, they could have re-entered the atmosphere while favoring the damaged left wing. The astronauts would then have to eject from the shuttle at a reasonable height (NOT 39 mi) before the right wing got too overheated from the extra heat it would be absorbing to make up for the damaged left side of the shuttle. Obviously the shuttle would have exploded in this scenario as well, however, hopefully the astronauts would have been able to abandon ship before this happened.
Second option, a second shuttle could have been launched while the Columbia was stil in orbit, in order to get the Columbia astronauts on board the new shuttle. However, 2 shuttles have NEVER been in space simultaneously and Mission Control is not prepared for that scenario, so it would have also been extremely risky. Also, the next shuttle that was set to go up wasn't ready yet, so they would have had to act quickly in order to get the second shuttle ready for launch...which is risky as well.
Cassie
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I don't think the shuttle has ejection seats. With temperatures outside the shuttle on reentry at about 5000F, I think even a very brief exposure plasma-level temperatures would have incinerated them even if they could have ejected.
Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned that you don't just SLAP a shuttle on the launch pad. It takes weeks of preparation and the weather has to be just right.