[tgflynn]

> There were a number of options. The astronauts could perform a spacewalk and visually inspect the hull. NASA could launch another Space Shuttle to pick the crew up. Or they could risk re-entry.

That's not how I remember it being presented to the public. The official word at the time was that there were no feasible rescue options. Yes, they could have done a spacewalk to inspect the damage but if it had been bad there still wasn't anything that could have been done. I think the main problem with launching a rescue mission was the time it took NASA to get a shuttle ready for launch.

[WillPostForFood]

https://spaceflightnow.com/columbia/report/rescue.html

Atlantis was already scheduled for launch 41 days after Columbia. Columbia had ~30 days of air. NASA believed that Atlantis prep could have been accelerated and launched in time to attempt a rescue.

[tgflynn]

That's from a study that was done after the accident. As far as I'm aware NASA never even considered a rescue mission while Columbia was in orbit. They simply assumed that if the tiles were damaged there was nothing that could be done. It also seems that that assumption was what lead to the decision not to make efforts to assess the damage such as a space walk or the use of DoD spy satellites.

[wizzard]

And could have had the same problem as Columbia. There was no quick fix to ensure Atlantis didn't meet the same fate.

[ciphol]

Judging by previous flights, the chance of a Columbia problem occurring on any given flight (like that of Atlantis) was around 1/200. Would you take a 1/200 chance of losing your life to save someone else's? Many people would.

[andi999]

What if both foams were from the same batch?

[gambiting]

Yeah I definitely remember reading a full analysis about what would be required to actually launch a second shuttle in time to rescue them, and it would require nothing less than war effort for an operation never attempted before, and of which literally every single part would have to work first try, with no delays, and even then there was barely enough time to do it.

[hbn]

If this is true then it's increasingly bold of this article's author to blame the deaths of 7 astronauts on a single engineer for not getting the information hierarchy correct on a powerpoint

[gambiting]

I think this is the right summary:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue...

Basically yeah, it could have been done, but only by pulling out one of the other shuttles out of active maintanance, skipping a whole bunch of repairs and necessary checks, launching in record time, and actually managing a situation where there are two shuttles in orbit, something NASA wasn't exactly prepared for at the time.

And the biggest question of all - what if the second shuttle becomes damaged in the exact same way on the way up?

That's not to say that NASA shouldn't have at least attempted a rescue. Knowing anything about the way US approaches situations like this, it would have been a "no expenses spared" effort and they would at least try. But unfortunately it's extremely likely that the second shuttle would have also been lost on the way, with crucial maintenance and checks skipped just to make it space worthy in time.

[marcellus23]

There was a possibility to rescue Columbia, but it would have been very difficult:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue...

That there was "no other feasible plan" than re-entry was presumably because the risk of re-entry was assumed to be low. If the risk was correctly estimated to be higher, then it seems likely the rescue plan would become feasible (since, what other choice would NASA have?)

[patagurbon]

In this specific case, though, there was a chance for a rescue. Atlantis was being prepared for launch and could have been ready with a 5-day overlap. Whether or not that was presented to the public is another thing.

[geoduck14]

I know. Right?

Everyone here is dogging the Slide. Sure it sucks - but I DISTINCTLY remember analysis of resuce. Do a space walk and repair it; send a second shuttle (they existing crew would run out); something else.

Also, the crew had a chance to call their loved ones and "sat good bye", and the pilot was anticipating the wing melting off.

NASA knew the risk, they tried to prevent it - but the shuttle still crashed

[giantg2]

I agree. I think there is a disconnect on what was known at the time vs what this retrospective article is assuming was known at the time.