Jazzman wrote:

It seems to me that another leading edge breach is inevitable, and
unless there is a way to mitigate the effects of heat entering the
wing structure, another loss of ship and crew is guaranteed.

Inevitable? That's a bit much. Keep in mind that they flew 113 times before
this specific problem occurred. Something needs to be done, but since
*prevention* is better, addressing the worst of the ET foam areas and/or
addressing bonding issues there, and flying ascent at a more negative alpha
in the higher qbar regimes would almost certainly alleviate *this* problem
over the expected remaining lifetime of the shuttle. If a good repair
option becomes available (and there are promising options starting to show
up now), then the contingency would be addressed.

Jon