No Repair for Shuttle?

NASA gave the Shuttle Endeavour an Ok for a Wednesday, August 22nd return to Earth with no repairs, then released a story to the press saying the Astronauts were relieved by the news.

Hey, I'm no aerospace engineer, but looking at this picture of the damage, does it look to anyone else like this could be particularly bad? I mean, NASA did refer to it as "a recessed uneven edged gouge between tiles located on the bottom of the shuttle", but let's just call it what it really is.... a hole! From what I hear, a hole that goes all the way through the heat resistant tile to expose just a felt liner below. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't the shuttle enter the atmosphere at a nose up angle with the bottom of the ship taking the brunt of the friction heat? I find it difficult to believe that any Astronaut would be relieved at the thought of re-entering the atmosphere with a hole in their ship. Don't they deserve better than just a layer of felt between them and a few thousand degrees of heat? At the very least, the shuttle has become an embarrassment, at the very most it's just dangerous. More so than the "space travel is a dangerous business" quote that has been repeated to the press by the agency, this level of risk is just unacceptable.

I sure hope this is the absolute best assessment of the situation NASA could come up with, and is not another Columbia style calculated risk, they better be right. But hey? What happens if they aren't right? What are "we, the people" going to do about it? Afterall, Columbia was said to have damage when NASA cleared the ship to return, only to have a terrible disaster witnessed live on tv by millions. I thought the people wouldn't stand for NASA taking a risk that cost the lives of the Astronauts, people were angry and sad for a while, but the story faded in time, and the people's attention went elsewhere. So even if something bad does happen, will something be done about it? Probably not, it's sad but true in the evidence of recent past events. Though I explore the tough questions and the possibility of a bad scenerio, I really do hope for the best. Those who would fly to space with our flag stitched to the arm of their uniform, deserve the best in what our government provides for them to carry out their duties, and in our wishes for them to succeed. I wish them well, and will say a prayer for when they're on their way back home.

As for NASA, I hope there are some big changes in the organization, that some real money goes into it, and that our country will soon have a new Vice President who will take his duties as head of the space program seriously. Yep, responsibility for the current sad state of affairs should go that far up to the top, afterall it is part of the job description for the Veep. Why haven't we heard from him, ever, about the condition of NASA as an agency, and what they're doing to make it better? If anything.