To tell, or not to tell the crew once they saw the damage... Could they have been rescued?
Heart wrenching day for us... We'd seen it's prior launch as it lifted the Xray telescope Chandra into orbit. My wife was the planner/Scheduler for it's mirrors out here, beat all measures, quality of it's coatings, completed early, big bonuses, parties once it was done, sent on to the final assembly... So since the team was disbanded at launch time, we just went to the Cape on our own... Dropped into Tampa, drove over... Some postpones so time to wander as well as after...
But, I bet the whole launch crew will always wonder... Columbia was special, the largest of the Shuttles, the Chandra load was the heaviest lift it had ever done, and that one worked great! It's that next one that was the killer...
weco
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