NASA Decides No Fix Needed for Endeavor's Tiles

bhmit1 writes "It looks like NASA is reporting that no repairs are needed for Endeavor. 'After meeting for five hours, mission managers opted Thursday night against any risky spacewalk repairs, after receiving the results of one final thermal test. The massive amount of data indicated Endeavor would suffer no serious structural damage during next week's re-entry. Their worry was not that Endeavor might be destroyed and its seven astronauts killed in a replay of the Columbia disaster — the gouge is too small to be catastrophic. They were concerned that the heat of re-entry could weaken the shuttle's aluminum frame at the damaged spot and result in lengthy post-flight repairs.'"

Comments

Hey, NASA, here's an idea...

[WED Fan]

As a former USAF avionics specialist and later crew chief, one thing was always true:

The decision about air-worthiness, mission-worthiness was the pilot's, the aircraft commander.

It didn't matter if I told him that sure, the plane will fly, if he didn't like it, the plane didn't fly.

So, NASA, provide all the information to the commander, pilot, and crew, and let THEM make the call. If you don't like what they decide, it can be taken up AFTER the mission.