NASA knew Columbia crew could die but chose not to tell them, page 3

Originally posted by TrueAmerican

Boggles the fricken mind, if this is true.

When it became clear that the orbiter was seriously damaged and likely wouldn’t survive re-entry, Flight Director Jon Harpold said to Hale and others at the meeting, “You know, there is nothing we can do about damage to the TPS (Thermal Protection System). If it has been damaged it’s probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don’t you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay on orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done, until the air ran out?”

My God. I mean you figure that something else might have been attempted, like a rescue of some sorts?

And I think this speaks highly of theories that NASA WOULD NOT TELL US, if there were indeed a deadly asteroid inbound, and instead would choose to let those die in ignorance of their upcoming fate.

Keep playing God, NASA.
THE PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW. After all, it is with our tax dollars that you function at all. Fricken jerks!

www.rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

At first as I read this I believed as well that if there wasn't anything they could do, then not telling them probably was the right choice, bu then again, you raise a very important specter here...the idea that NASA wouldn't tell us if there was in impending disaster from an asteroid impact. I can vision it now...NASA's top brass sitting around some observation room tracking an inbound rock that was miscalculated or missed entirely heading for some major city and them discussing how there's not enough time to evacuate the 3 million people in harm's way, so let's not tell them so as to avoid a panic. "It's better to let them die happily living their lives rather than spend the last 5 hours killing each other in a mass exodus from the city!" Whoa, the decisions. I have to agree with you here that there is a high probability that they would allow people to perish and decide for themselves they are doing the right thing, but they aren't...people would have a right to know so they can choose for themselves how they want to spend those last hours. Maybe they would have their own escape plan. In the case of these astronauts who they knew would have to face re-entry or run out of air, that's a tough call, but I think if there was any chance that re-entry might have been successful, it was worth the try. I would have hated to been in on that decision whether to tell them or not.