CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- NASA lost communication with space shuttle Columbia shortly before its scheduled landing on Saturday. It was unclear whether there were any other problems.

they just showed amateur video of it breaking up in the atmosphere.. unconfirmed, but things don't look good

[ February 01, 2003, 10:06 AM: Message edited by: Tam ]

Yes, I am watching. They are now confirming that the space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas en route to a planned landing in Florida.
Last contact with the shuttle was 55 minutes ago and it is now over 30 minutes late for it's arrival.
I believe there was a crew of 7 on board.
This is eerie.

[ February 01, 2003, 09:56 AM: Message edited by: lila997 ]

i remember seeing video footage like this 17 years ago.. i so didn't want to see it again

Toran's kinda close to there. I'll ask her as well.

*sigh* Why the hell don't they have some kind of escape thing? Like, if the ship detects big trouble it could blast the entire crew thing off with parachutes or something. Oh but that would be far too expensive I guess. And also, the ship was freaking 21 years old. Isn't the government learning anything??

NASA warned people on the ground in Texas to stay away from any fallen debris....doesn't look good

they just showed a local weather radar map that shows debris falling from Shreveport,Mansfield to Natchitoches La.
I live about 200 miles from Dallas but 70 from Shreveport.

I'm pretty sure money wasn't the object, as far as safety was concerned. It is assumed so far that the breaking up of the shuttle happened at a very high altitude, probably having already started where any regular means of escape wouldn't've worked, anyway. An expert just said that it most probably happened (or started to happen) at the worst possible moment during the critical re-entry phase.
Navigation out.
Shuttle-to-ground telemetry out.
Communication out (and not having been re-established after the expected blackout phase).
Extreme temperatures pummeling the heat shields.

If there can be any consoling thoughts at all, then it must be the one that it must've happened VERY quickly for the crew.

My thoughts are with the souls concerned.
The Xenatizer

its so horrible when things like this happen. My only hope is that nothing worse will come out of it. (I mean where it lands and such..)

With so much that has to go exactly right during liftoff & re-entry, it's amazing they've had as many successful space missions as they've had.

Very sad to hear this happened...

Still, eventually there will be more and more vehicles going in and out of the atmosphere. It's not always going to be an instant explosion that threatens the crew, if that's even what happened this time. I would hope NASA would put more consideration into some kind of ejection system.

Ejection at that speed, at that height, I think would be impossible (and fatal), unless a sort of shuttle pod or escape vehicle was devised.

My brother immediately called his stepdaughter who doesn't live too far from one of the debris sites to ask if they saw/heard anything.

They are building a new space suttle that takes off and lands like a regular plane. They will be able to take off and reenter slower.

cat

I was thinking of a pod-type arrangement. The crew cabin is tiny compared to the rest of the ship. I don't see why it, or even part of it, couldn't be ejectable with some kind of emergency life support, radios. They'd be enclosed and strapped in, parachutes, etc. Not much fun, but better than blowing up or crashing full force.

if you would like to read some local reports just go to ksla.com ktbs.com or ktal.com these are the local TV stations of Shreveport La.

The problem is that you need to re-enter thru the atmosphere first. After that you can use parachute, but not before. Additionally if you are above 15 thousand feet then there is no breathable air.

A sad day.

Just heard the news.

This follows on the heels of a major train accident at "Waterfall" (just South of Sydney).

Don't like to see people in so much hurt.

I think it has been caused by wrong re-entering angle.
Now they should ponder the real need for the shuttles, those ships were already obsolete in 1990, what to say in 2003.

maybe now after 2 disasters they will rethink the out of date technology

One would hope. Also, the computers aboard the shuttle itself are years behind anything civilians can just go pick up at Gateway. It takes so long to test the processors for the conditions of space travel that by the time they're ready some of the technology is, by home pc standards, obsolete. (I read it in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics...can't remember which.) That seems sooo off to me.

Yes it's partly because they have to test the software and hardware to destruction, and it takes a long time to test and install new software or hardware....so by the time it's approved and installed it's old by home PC standards. (We can just get the latest version of Bill's software with lots of bugs in it.)

Anyway I guess you've seen on the news by now. They think that during lift-off a small piece of material fell off the engine and hit the wing. They didn't think it was dangerous at the time but now they think it might have damaged or knocked off one of the heat tiles. So the ship was doomed from the start.

The heat tiles are all along the bottom and they are what makes the shuttle reusable. They shuttle has to position itself at 45 degrees during reentry, so that the heat tiles asborb all the heat. (Too shallow an angle and the ship burns up, too steep and it bounces into space). Then they replace the heat tiles before the next trip.

There was no explosion. So what almost certainly happened is that the damaged or missing heat shield caused the ship to sustain structural damage, and traveling at 200,500 feet altitude and at 12,500 miles per hour, this was catastrophic.

It is very sad thinking of those seven people in the shuttle, just as the whole disaster happened. The only consoling thing, as mentioned above, is that it would have happened very very quickly.

They'll probably have the shuttle grounded for at least a year now. At least the 3 people in the ISS can get supplies and stuff from the Soviet spaceships. Otherwise this would cause an even worse dilemma.

PS the heat tiles are like ... well small tiles. They are almost pure silocone, whitish in color, with a thin black covering (made of I forget what).

The black covering absorbs temperatures at 2,000 degrees and thie white silicone at 1,000. It's possible to hold one in your hand, and put a blowtorch to the other side. It will burn bright red, but you're hand will be cool.

However although these light-weight tiles allowed the whole concept of the 'reusable shuttle' to be practical, they are very delicate and brittle. If you scratched away at the edge of one with your fingernails, you would easily chip it into small pieces.

Such sad news... It's really horrible and unfortunate that this had to happen.

Every Time I see the news about the space shuttle I just get more and more pissed off. They should string up that mission leader.

I wrote a letter to the Vice President, requesting thier early retirment. They knew when it took off that there could be as much as 5 square feet of tile missing and never even bothered to inspect it.

I saw on the news that the first indication that there was a problem to the shuttle crew was loss of tire pressure on the left landing gear. Heres my point, If there were only enough tiles missing to melt the landing gear and they managed to get into the atmosphere, they would still be screwed. They wouldnt be able to land a repairable shuttle or survive for that matter.

The mission leader didnt bother to send them to the space station. Didnt bother to order a space walk to inspect the damage, and didnt bother to image the shuttles exterior with a spy satelite. He didnt do a damn thing, he was probably in a hurry to get home so he could catch the latest episode of hoe millionaire.

cat

PS im actually more civilized than this, but I wouldnt mind if they put his head on a stake outside of Houston Control, to remind them that there is more at stake than missing thier favorite show.

REF: Watch This Video.

PPS When you read about how hard it is to dock at the spacestation read this. and you'll know its BS. An unmanned russia cargo ship docked with ease.

[ February 04, 2003, 07:58 PM: Message edited by: CatDaddyChris ]