Seven astronauts were on board the twenty four year old shuttle. One of them, the payload specialist, was Ilan Ramon, a young man who was the first Israeli in space. This will hurt public relations, not to mention the space program. We are assured that this was not an act of terror. It was a freaking accident.
They claim that during lift off, a piece of Foam Insulation keeping the liquid hydrogen cool, broke off and hit the wing. Foam Insulation is what we use to make our nerf swords. This is just a lot more government quality stuff though. At the speeds it was traveling, the foam pieces may have done some damage to the Silicon tiles that keep the shuttle from heating up. This has happened in the past, so mission control thought nothing bad of it. Even if so, what could they have done?
