On Sun, Feb 02, 2003 at 08:27:06PM -0800, Steve Schear wrote:

I can't imagine that it would be so difficult to construct a small, remotely-controlled, gyro stabilized, tethered probe that would be carried on all shuttle missions and could be deployed from the cargo bay to closely inspect the exterior of the craft for possible damage. Even if the shuttle could not be immediately repaired, it could be somehow moored at some part of the station and left there till a repair mission could be effected or perhaps sacrificed by a controlled burn re-entry over an unpopulated area of the earth as some satellites have already ended their days. In any case astronauts would then not need to "live-test" a possibly damaged shuttle as those on Columbia did Saturday.

If they had thought there was damage, couldn't they have just done a tethered space walk to look at it? I thought space walks were a normal practice on both the shuttle and ISS. -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com