nevermind, found it – progress here:
click on the "click here to watch nasa tv button.
From that link:
It’s now on camera and looking good.
And they’re down safely.
phew
Whew! A friend called me and told me they were on final approach, and I turned the TV on just in time to see the landing. I feel like a heavy weight has been lifted. I can’t watch the shuttle any more without worrying. I’m glad it was unfounded, at least this time!
Welcome home Endeavour!
Oh good. I must have been running errands when it happened.
All true, but several flights that went before Challenger had O-ring damage that was also not catastrophic.
Yeah! 
Whew.
True enough, but NASA has data on tile damage from basically every shuttle mission. Gouges in tiles such as on this mission aren’t some unknown factor (the SRB o-ring seals were re-designed after Challenger) like a hole in the carbon-carbon LE, but since NASA now surveys for damage they are suddenly front page news. Additionally, NASA ran a series of tests on a replica of the damaged tile to ascertain if it was a danger, something that they couldn’t do before the age of the survey.
So while it makes for some good edge of seat action for some, it’s not anything extraordinary. If the world stopped turning every time a gouge of this nature was discovered on a tile, fingernails would be in short supply.
Welcome home everybody. Whew, I missed this landing, but ever since Nasa TV went online I’ve seen most launches, and every single time I find myself holding my breath and wishing as hard as I can for success. “Go for throttle up” - chills every single time. In a thousand years time, when the world is changed and travel to space has become routine, the men and women who launched themselves into orbit strapped to a giant firecracker will be remembered, and honoured.
Thank goodness.
I think I’ve been nervous about shuttle flights since 1986. I feel like they dodge a bullet every time. Which they do – or mostly do, anyway – but it’s more than time to come up with a new way to do this.
Since they’re down safely…
Deep Purple has naked pictures.
Even though it has design flaws, the Space Shuttle really is a marvelous piece of engineering. Seeing that thing go up on the back of a rocket, spend days in space, then glide back to earth is an amazing thing.
I suspect the Shuttle is like the Concord - a brief fling with something of real technological grandeur, before reality set in. We are reverting back to capsules in space, supersonic transport is a thing of the past. I suspect we’ll be pretty nostalgic for the Shuttle in 40 years. It may be the most capable spacecraft we’ll build in our lifetimes.
I think the shuttle’s popularity and longevity also have to do with…
- It would take years to design a new and better craft. (They were working on some of the shuttle’s physics in the early '60’s… see “lifting body”.)
- And we have this ISS thingy going on. Right now.
I grew up in the Apollo days, and because of that I give a TREMENDOUS amount of respect and leeway to NASA’s engineers. Even with the Challenger and Columbia disasters… when I read that the engineers had determined that the tile damage was minimal, and it was ok for the shuttle to come down, I breathed a sigh of relief. And put this on the back shelf of my mind. They may have missed a couple of unforeseen catastrophes, but when it comes down to hard calculations on good data (like detailed tile pictures) I’d accept their judgement out of hand.
if6was9, I know where you’re coming from, though I’m a post-Apollo kid myself, by four years. My concern is not so much for NASA engineers as for the bureaucrats controlling the money for said engineers. I’m worried that NASA simply doesn’t have the money or enough on-the-ground people to do what should be done, which is coming up with a shuttle replacement (presumably with the help of contracting companies and whatnot) and in the meantime doing everything they possibly can to make current flights safer until they accomplish the former. I would truly hate to see them shut down manned flights, and without a new vehicle or vehicles I think it’s going to happen before too much longer. I find that thought inexpressably depressing, but there ya go.