Sean Lynch wrote:
NASA's statements about being unable to do anything about damage to the
TPS *deserve* to be met with shock. They themselves stated that they
were flying a nominal reentry trajectory, implying that they could
change the trajectory to perhaps lessen the danger.
No, I'm pretty sure there is no backup trajectory, otherwise they would
use it routinely.
I'm guessing they
did not have enough propellant to dock with ISS,
They certainly didn't; practically no propellent is left once they make
orbit; it takes an enormous amount to perform a plane change to get to
the ISS.
but if they could have
known the thing was gonna blow up, they certainly could have done
something besides just flying a normal reentry and dying.
No, my understanding is, they would have had basically no options at
that point. I did wonder if they could drop the science module off in
orbit, but doubtless they had no tools for this, and it wouldn't reduce
the mass by much (the orbiter itself is so much heavier).
Not to mention
they would now have valuable data on exactly what sort of damage there
was, so they wouldn't now have the problem of trying to extrapolate what
sort of damage might have caused a burnthrough. The fleet might have
been recertified much faster that way.
Yes. That's a good point.
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