Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org (Greg Cox)]

> Good sense would suggest if there was even a remote question about 
> potential left wing damage, NASA should have ordered the shuttle to dock 
> with the space station, where the station's robotic arm with attached 
> camera could have made a close up visual inspection.


| As with every new endeavor, there were snags along the way.  In
| the training leading up to manned flights, the Mercury 7
| witnessed repeated rocket booster mishaps and explosions.  Part
| of Kraft's work was to work out contingency procedures for any
| emergencies that might arise during a mission.  But not all
| problems can be anticipated, so occasionally quick thinking
| controllers must improvise procedures to deal with the
| unexpected.  Kraft had to do just that during a test launch of
| an unmanned Redstone booster.  When an errant switch caused an
| instantaneous shutdown of the rocket's engine, it settled back
| onto the pad after only lifting up four inches.  The hazard of
| a fully fueled rocket sitting on the pad, disconnected from all
| ground support, with a morning breeze starting to pick up, was
| something that could not be foreseen.  An urgent suggestion
| was made to have an Army rifleman shoot holes rocket's fuel
| tanks, so that volatile fuel could drain out, before the wind
| knocked it over and destroyed it.
| 
| A cool Kraft improvised what would be a longstanding flight
| control rule, ''When you don't know what to do, don't do
| anything hasty.''  By doing nothing, the liquid fuels eventually
| evaporated off, and the rocket was rendered safe.  In fact,
| it was later used in a successful flight.

-- Chris Kraft, from "Flight: My Life In Mission Control"
   (ISBN 0525945717)


They don't have time and resources to play hunches.  Apollo 12
was sent to the moon, not knowing if the parachutes' pyro charges
had been damaged and would thus kill them on re-entry.  You takes
your chances.


> They all could have remained safely in space while a crew
> recovery mission was planned.

Response to people saying it wasn't dock-ready:
Even if it wasn't equipped to dock, they could've done 
rendezvous and EVA-transfers.  But...

3 people on the ISS can go til June, so, 450 people-days of
supplies.  10 people is 45 days, which is barely time to get
launch-ready.