On or about 27 Aug 2003 05:45:00 GMT, Pat Flannery
made the sensational claim that:
I was absolutely flabbergasted to read this on MSN

I was utterly flabbergasted to read in the CAIB report about the damage on
STS-50. (I *think* that's the right flight.) And the 112 bipod loss as well.
Nobody thought to ask what's the *worst* place a piece of foam could hit?
And what would it do?

Also, the scheduling pressure, and the Feb 2004 node 2 date. I know it's easy
to say now, but I've had the feeling over the past few years that we were
"due" for something like this. Apollo 1 to Challenger is roughly (ok VERY
roughly) equal to Challenger to Columbia. The shuttle program was in the
midst of enormous pressure from ISS requirements. Maybe we should step back
and take a deep breath, and look for *anything* we weren't paying enough
respect to. I even had a poster idea, three years ago...a picture of the
Challenger breakup with the caption "What's the worst that could happen?"
I suppose that's pretty tasteless, but it's the attitude NASA needs to adopt
if it doesn't want to go through this again.
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