Astronomy Picture of the Day 2-03-03

NASA ^ | 2-03-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 February 3

Space Shuttle and Crew Lost During Re-Entry
Credit: STS-107 Crew, NASA

Explanation: Saturday morning, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry. Pictured above is the seven-member crew that was lost. True space pioneers, they were, left to right, David M. Brown, Rick D. Husband, Laurel B. Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, William C. McCool, and Ilan Ramon. As debris from the shuttle may be toxic, NASA asks that anything found be reported immediately to local authorities and not touched. For the safety of future missions, investigations into the cause of the tragedy are underway. If you have any video or photographs that may aid in these investigations, NASA asks that you please see this web page, call (US) 281-483-3388, or send e-mail to columbiaimages@nasa.gov.

[petuniasevan]

Today's scheduled APOD page has been pre-empted by Saturday morning's tragic event. The editors have placed a thoughtful tribute to the seven astronauts who gave their lives in the advance of science.

Please read the article, visit the links, and PING anyone to this thread you think might want to see it.

[petuniasevan]

[BradyLS]

What an incredible ride. Great pics! Prayers to the families of the lost crewmen.

[Soaring Feather]

Beautiful tribute.

[panther33]

Bump

[Capitalism2003]

petun, is that a real picture? Looks amazing, either way.

[maestro]

Wow!................Thanks for posting!...................('For God and Country!')..................BTTT

[petuniasevan]

Yes, that's a real pic. That's a photo of the launch of Columbia on mission STS-50, June 25th 1992.

Here's the photo source:

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/gallery/photos/1992/captions/KSC-92PC-1402.html

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

My heroes have always been astronauts...

[MeekOneGOP]

Video link: Shuttle over D/FW, Texas

Very close-up, slo-mo of the Columbia launch debris

[MeekOneGOP]

ROBERT McCULLOUGH / © 2003, DMN
Space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it hurtled
across North Texas shortly before 8 a.m. Saturday.
The image was taken in Flower Mound.

[foolish-one]

Sorry. I don't know what to say.

[headsonpikes]

In memoriam bttt.

[Joan912]

What a sad event. The pics are beautiful.

[trussell]

Today's scheduled APOD page has been pre-empted by Saturday morning's tragic event. The editors have placed a thoughtful tribute to the seven astronauts who gave their lives in the advance of science. Please read the article, visit the links, and PING anyone to this thread you think might want to see it.

Thank you for the ping petuniasevan. I would think everyone would be interested in seeing this, so I pinged everyone I could think of.

God Bless the families of the lost astronauts.

[EternalVigilance]

Thank you.

[glock rocks]

.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thank You

[nicmarlo]

Thanks for the ping trussell; and another ping here.

[trussell]

Your welcome.

And another BTTT