Columbia Discussion thread

Feb 1, 2003

[Admin Moderator]

'

On behalf of posters on Free Republic, I post this with deepest sympathy for the crew and their families.

Mission - sts107

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This is a continuation of the original thread.

Shuttle Contact LOST-No Tracking Data During RE-Entry!

ANY DU LINKS OR POSTS WILL BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY. Keep them on the original thread.

[Dog]

Agree Duke...

Space is a dangerous place...

[EternalVigilance]

[George W. Bush]

And what's with the bonehead Indian gal onboard? This flight was a multi-culti sideshow. If we're serious about space exploration let's act serious and use real pros for all flights. (Wonder how many foregn programmers NASA has on payroll).

For better or worse, space has become an international effort. No one country has been willing to shoulder the burden of space science themselves. Launching commercial satellites and military satellites is something that everyone does. But manned space missions and the space station will remain an international effort.

[bonesmccoy]

The nose is RCC.
Leading edge of the wing is RCC
Dark tile that thick is on the underside of the fuselage and the wings... the entire vehicle is a lifting body.

Tragic!

[George W. Bush]

And what's with the bonehead Indian gal onboard? This flight was a multi-culti sideshow. If we're serious about space exploration let's act serious and use real pros for all flights. (Wonder how many foregn programmers NASA has on payroll).

For better or worse, space has become an international effort. No one country has been willing to shoulder the burden of space science themselves. Launching commercial satellites and military satellites is something that everyone does. But manned space missions and the space station will remain an international effort.

[denco]

Thank you so much. That isn't hers so I am much relieved. I appreciate your help so much. Denco

[Ichneumon]

I speculated that it was an internal altitude-sensitive explosive...

Speculations of sabotage are extremely premature at this point. Re-entry is a risky enough procedure all by itself that it could easily cause such a disaster due to any number of simple mechanical failures. In fact, it's amazing that the US space program has gone as long as it has without a re-entry failure -- the Russians have had several, for example.

[Steel Wolf]

So your take on all this is that the shuttle disaster was the result of multiculturalism? That a female American technician born in India who wasn't flying the shuttle was more of a potential problem than, say, lack of funding, maintanance, possible wing damage, sabotage, outdated equipment, equipment malfunction or human error?

AshleyMontagu, I think we know who the real bonehead is. We are all dumber for having heard you speak. I award you no points.

[steveegg]

I have always wondered why NASA didn't put shields, or pants, on the leading edges of the Shuttle. These shields would be on the nose and leading edges of the wings and tail, and would stay in place during ascent and orbit, then jettisoned just prior to re-entry.

The wings and tail act as aerodynamic stabilizers during liftoff. My guess is that the computers of the day were unable to come up with a way to compensate for the additional unaerodynamic drag of a shield on the leading edges, and thus used thicker black tiles there.

I'll wager that this gets looked at again.

[Ichneumon]

Jay Barbree on NBC just said there are 200,000 parts to a shuttle...imgaine that.......whoa!

"...each built by the lowest bidder", as the old joke goes.

[Dog Gone]

Do you have any idea how long the ISS can last in a decaying orbit without getting a boost from a Shuttle?

[MilspecRob]

My guess would be a software error. 1000's of lines of code & at 200K the landing is under computer control.

[Howlin]

Thank you for that!

[CyberAnt]

Well ... he wasn't JUST from Israel - he was one of the 2 pilots who flew the mission which took out Iraq's nuclear plant - several years ago. Although the world was irate at what Israel had done, it later proved to be very critical in keeping Iraq from having nuclear weapons.

Security was over-kill when the flight took off - because of this guy from Israel.

[Movemout]

"For Heaven's Sakes! A shuttle re-entering is going to generate one hell of a heat spike. "

I know. It is just that there was speculation by others that the heat spike had sinister implications. I was just doing my part to dispell that notion.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Actually, the sad part is, it ISN'T a joke...

[bonesmccoy]

It's definitely a piece of the lab module.
FNC had a video tape from a helicopter...it's about that size. Could also be a part of the payload bay door, but it doesn't look like that.

It's part of spacelab.

Looks like the cargo bay contents may have landed in one area around Nagodotches.

The rest of the wings and V-stab probably have more lift and go farther.

[Mamzelle]

I still haven't figured out the point of this particular mission. I thought I heard it was for the ISS, then I read another post that they didn't get near it...

[PokeyJoe]

The last time that we had a tragedy of this magnitude, there was some dancing in the streets of certain foreign areas, broadcast on foreign media.

I'm searching for similar events this morning, after someone mentioned that this was indeed the case, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Can anyone in Israel confirm the local reaction, both Israeli and Palistinian?

[CyberAnt]

They were 39 miles up - traveling at 12,500 mph.

No way a hand held missle could have touched it.