Plot hole: The time and distance of the movie doesn't make sense. The comet was only 3.7 million miles away from Earth when the Messiah mission failed. That is about 1/10th the distance to Mars. They should have been able to put more contingency plans into place. Also, it took the Messiah 5 months to reach the comet which means it was only going 1,033 mph, which is very slow for spacecraft.
Other mistake: How can it be named Wolf-Beiderman? Wolf never sent the email, and even if it did go, once the network was restored, he never called it Wolf-B before writing it on the floppy label. The president says both were killed in the crash. So, they invent an astronomer working at the observatory and no one notices? Remember, the floppy was destroyed in the fire. Wolf never called anyone; he was killed while trying to make a call. Maybe the pics were also burned. Mr. Perry never followed up?
Factual error: A wave 1000' high would have obliterated the containments and wiped out the spent fuel pools of every nuclear plant on the east coast. Even if they were all shut down, there would be no time or way to remove all the fuel and no place to safely store it all if they did. There are thousands of metric tons of fuel that have to be actively cooled for years, otherwise it would all catch fire and burn, or at the very least boiled all its cooling water away and melted/uncovered it to allow gamma shine. This would have, in and of itself, made the northern hemisphere uninhabitable for several hundred human lifetimes.
Continuity mistake: When Jenny is talking in front of the Capitol Building, the lady she's talking with has a hold of her bag in a distinctive way. When the shot changes she's no longer holding her bag. (00:10:50)
Continuity mistake: When Jenny is first talking to her mum, her mum gets the name 'Chloe' wrong. When she does she has nothing in her hands besides the cigarette. Camera changes and now she's got a watch in her hands. (00:09:40)
Continuity mistake: When the guy is leaving the observatory, the door is left almost fully open while getting in his truck. When we see him drive off the door is now half closed despite us seeing the door come to a stop in the previous shot. (00:05:33)
Continuity mistake: When they are on the motorcycle near the end, he is first traveling with the flow of traffic that is stopped (west). When she gets on the bike with him and the baby, they keep going with the flow of traffic. Than the smaller asteroid enters the atmosphere, it is traveling in the same direction they are driving on the motorcycle. But when it passes the girl's family in the van, now the asteroid is traveling against the flow of traffic (east).
Answer: It could have been salvaged and worked on, plus he was calling people in authority. There would have been an investigation into the crash, which leads back the young boy and the comet.