'On behalf of posters on Free Republic, I post this with deepest sympathy for the crew and their families.
Mission - sts107
Was this previously reported? or just now being speculated?
I am, like all others here, struck with sadness and sickness over this. Willie McCool was in my company at the Naval Academy. This very likely marks the end of the Shuttle program and certainly will ground US manned space for the next several years. Spacestation construction is done, and without yet another expensive redesign, likely signals the end of further work on that program as well.
For those of us who have worked in the space business, for those who know any of the crew members, fellow astronauts, or their friends and families, and for anyone who has ever been inspired by the US manned space program, this is a terrible day. I can only hope we have the national fortitude to recover from this and develop a follow on program that will be properly funded and maintained to provide safe access to space in the future.
It was reported and commented on upon launch. I believe it was the launch engineer who said that it should pose any problems during the flight.
'On behalf of posters on Free Republic, I post this with deepest sympathy for the crew and their families.
Mission - sts107
God bless those poor souls.
The left wing was damaged during launch by a piece of insulation foam that detached from the main fuel tank.
Was this previously reported? or just now being speculated?
The flight director commented that this happened and there was no danger to the crew a few days back.
I am, like all others here, struck with sadness and sickness over this. Willie McCool was in my company at the Naval Academy. This very likely marks the end of the Shuttle program and certainly will ground US manned space for the next several years. Spacestation construction is done, and without yet another expensive redesign, likely signals the end of further work on that program as well.
Yup. And that totally sucks. People and nations should be allowed to take risks, and those astronauts willing to take the risks should be allowed to do so.
Explorers die in great numbers throughout history. Thousands have died getting to America, colonizing the west, and so on. Explorers die. That's what they do.
For those of us who have worked in the space business, for those who know any of the crew members, fellow astronauts, or their friends and families, and for anyone who has ever been inspired by the US manned space program, this is a terrible day. I can only hope we have the national fortitude to recover from this and develop a follow on program that will be properly funded and maintained to provide safe access to space in the future.
I cannot disagree with any of this.
Was this previously reported? or just now being speculated?
I am, like all others here, struck with sadness and sickness over this. Willie McCool was in my company at the Naval Academy. This very likely marks the end of the Shuttle program and certainly will ground US manned space for the next several years. Spacestation construction is done, and without yet another expensive redesign, likely signals the end of further work on that program as well.
For those of us who have worked in the space business, for those who know any of the crew members, fellow astronauts, or their friends and families, and for anyone who has ever been inspired by the US manned space program, this is a terrible day. I can only hope we have the national fortitude to recover from this and develop a follow on program that will be properly funded and maintained to provide safe access to space in the future.
Rick Hauck, the commander of the first shuttle mission after the Challenger disaster, is on MSNBC right now. He is speculating on two theories. What is interesting is the order of his speculation. The first one is not the loss of tiles, but the pitch attitude (40 degrees) on reentry and a possible loss of stable longitudinal control. He further stated that this is controlled and stabilized by small reentry rockets which line the shuttle up in the correct attitude. Unless I miss my guess, this is not a manual input from the pilot, but is done automatically by the onboard systems. I am quite sure that the code will be looked at during the investigation.