> "We informed the foam technicians at our plant in Michoud Louisiana that they were the cause of the loss of Columbia..." This is stupid, perhaps wilfully so.

> "We informed the foam technicians at our plant in Michoud Louisiana that they were the cause of the loss of Columbia..." This is stupid, perhaps wilfully so. The fact that foam can come off the external tank and strike critical parts of the shuttle is a fatal design flaw. Insulation has been used on rockets for sixty years now, and it has been observed to come loose every now an then. The difference is this: on a rocket it just falls off, but if any comes off the tank and strikes the Shuttle orbiter, there is disaster. The fault was at an early stage of design.