Speaking of heat tiles.....
There's an insight on the web to the failed shuttle that burnt uonon reentry. It seems the ground crew knew there was a strong chance this would happen after they analysed the footage of the bit of ice from the boosters, but decided against telling the crew as they knew there was nothing that could be done. What a horrible secret to have to keep. I wonder if they had to bareface lie to the families.
Sorry, massive human challenges as well as technical ones.
It wasn't ice though? It was foam shedded by the main tank during launch that struck the leading edge of Columbia's left wing and punched a hole in it. It had happened on numerous occasions before without consequences, which was one more reason why they didn't bother informing the crew.
I saw a programme many years ago that considered several possible rescue scenarios had the damage been discovered prior to reentry. One was a rescue shuttle; another was a flight plan for re-entry that favoured the undamaged wing edge; if that wasn't possible then another option was to get Columbia far enough into the atmosphere were the crew could bail out through the emergency hatch.
The shuttle, although a technical marvel, was plagued by design flaws as a result of competing requirements.