In the press NASA press conference they pointed out that they didn't bother
to do a space walk because there was nothing they could do about it if they
found a problem. They couldn't get to the space station, they couldn't
repair any damaged tiles, they couldn't stay up long enough for another
shuttle. So even if they had found the problem they would have tried to take
their chances and land and ended up with the same result.
In the same news conference they also mentioned that they don't have black
boxes like airplanes. They do have recorders but they didn't expect them to
survive. Most of the information is recorded on the ground anyways. They
have much more complete information on the ground than even the pilot and
commander have on board.
-- Craig
They had 16 days to look it the extent of the damage from the fallen tile.
How about a space walk, for closer look? On CNN, they were saying that the
leading edges take the most heat, like on the nose and the wings, even if
the bottom is facing to earth. When it comes through the atmosphere the air
gets so hot, it gets ionized, that's why there is a 12 minutes radio block
out and no communication. Columbia survived that and just after that, was
the first transmission, pilot reported tire pressure drop and sensors
malfunctions on the left wing. So, there maybe a burn through the skin of
the wing that blow out the tire and damaged the sensers or the frame on the
left wing, which caused the spacecraft to disintegrate. Columbia was still
flying 12000+ miles/per hour, way above the SPEED limit. Just speculation.
(-:
Time and the black box will tell it all.
Julius