In the wake of this tragedy, I do not mean to sound harsh here. Just observant and disturbed: Pfranz wrote above about the contingency plans not having been what they could have been; from what I've been hearing in the NASA briefings, primarily through Ron Dittemore's honesty and care in explanations that he admits are 'fluid,' changing each day by necessity as information is gathered, there does not appear to have been contingency planning in the case of damage sustained to the vehicle during liftoff. And I have a very uneasy feeling about the film of the liftoff not having been reviewed till the next day, at which point nothing could have been done to rescue the crew anyway. There is such a very slight window of opportunity for the shuttle to turn back, and that time almost immediately follows liftoff from what I've gathered. As our understanding increases of what the crew and NASA were up against deepens, the whole event takes upon sobering realizations and makes the whole situation that much more piteous and sorrowful.
