Supposedly NASA was aware of the tile damage to Columbia before re-entry in 2003, but purposefully didn't tell the astronauts because they believed there was in

Supposedly NASA was aware of the tile damage to Columbia before re-entry in 2003, but purposefully didn't tell the astronauts because they believed there was indeed no way to fix it; the Shuttle's TPS tiles are right on the bleeding edge of being capable of protecting the craft, just barely thick enough to do their job (thin to save weight) and completely unable to resist impacts. Supposedly the philosophy was such that NASA management would rather the astronauts be completely oblivious to the impending failure during re-entry, carry out a successful mission, and thus experience only a short period of pure horror during re-entry, as opposed to informing them there was nothing to be done and that re-entry would kill them. I have never understood NASA management. It's been responsible for both Shuttle disasters (pushing Challenger to launch despite unsuitable weather). NASA demonstrated what I think is humanity's finest engineering-your-way-out-of-a-problem with Apollo 13, which couldn't benefit from satellite imaging, robot arms or other inventions since, but they seem pretty complacent after that. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaste...