Shuttle Pic--SIDE VIEW!

WFAA | 02/01/03 | GRRRRR

[jt8d]

Believe the spherical object to be a propellant tank for a Reaction-Control Thruster-possibly an accumulator. Believe the nozzel and bulkhead assembly is one of the two Orbital Maneuvering System thrusters.

[Justa]

If you watch the mpg film here you can easily see the camera clearly brings the image in focus. You can also see what is most likely the verticle stablizer tumbling away from the shuttle at the lower right! The shuttle is sideways to the slip stream, L side leading. This fits with the telemetry. Look for the spinning object. It's the tail!

[New Horizon]

It's still pissing away bandwidth and slowing everything down...it's pissing away my bandwidth.

Some of us backwoods folk can only get dial-up.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

Thank you for posting the video for the "FNC challenged" like myself. I imagine that we will be seeing a great deal of analysis on this footage in the next few months.

[jaugust]

Until I hear from other experts I will yield to those who are experts in the field of optics. But even still, it does not take away from the possibility that loss of control could have caused the shuttle to be flying sideways.
Also, NASA is now saying that sensors in the left wing elevon hydraulics gave off the scale readings beginning at 0753, followed by the loss of several other sensors all in the left wing. Some reports have said that the landing gear readings showed elevated temperatures before giving off scale readings. Other reports deny this. I doubt that NASA is going to release much more info because it could lead to more wild speculation and unsubstantiated rumors.

[FreedomCalls]

Final post on the subject.

Here is the image in question.

Here is a photo of the aperture gate in a Sony handheld video camcorder rotated 180 degrees.

And finally, here are the two superimposed on each other.

If you are not now convinced, you one of the tin-foil hat crowd and nothing I post will convince you otherwise.

[DoctorMichael]

This stuff looks to me like they lost some tiles and there was "burn-through" into the interior of the wing where the sensors were.

Thanks for the Info.

[ChadGore]

I'm sorry, but I don't see what your guys see in this image, or video.

[jlogajan]

Heh, you expect them to believe evidence??? heh heh

[OldFriend]

Uh guys.....the shuttle does re enter upside down. According to the press conference it had rolled over without any problem at all and was at the proper attitude when it began to break apart.

[Alberta's Child]

I will gladly defer to people who have a better understanding of video equipment in this case.

Regardless of what is shown, to me the key here is that the video showed no debris contrail at the point this image was recorded, and yet when the video zooms out and re-focuses it is clear that something has already broken off and is traveling at the same speed as the main body of the shuttle, below and to the right, when the contrails start to appear. Let's consider the series of events here:

1. Some instruments stop generating data.
2. Crew and/or ground people notice these problems.
3. An unusual tire pressure reading is noted.
4. The last message from the spacecraft is cut off.
5. Shuttle starts to break up.

Based on what I've seen, it would appear that the image in question was recorded after all five events have occurred.

[Crusader21stCentury]

The red streak was probably the Castrol Hydraulic fluid.
LINK

[Alberta's Child]

I only meant to say that whatever caused the break-up of the shuttle probably actually occurred before the instruments started indicating a problem.

[Political Junkie Too]

Thanks. It's kind of like when my Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope is out of focus on a bright star and you see the donut effect from the secondary mirror. It's also like when the late amateur astonomer and Houston DJ Chuck Shramek thought he saw a "Saturn-like object" trailing the Hale-Bopp comet, which were also CCD defects and an error in programming the telescope. Shramek's SLO was a contributing factor to the suicides of the Heaven's Gate cult.

-PJ

[TomServo]

Thanks for the superimposed pic.

[mikegi]

I'm not a tinfoil hatter and I see what you're referring to. However, later in the video sequence I capped there are several obvious lens flares. They are upside-down triangular patches, eg. white on the bottom.

One other thing, I capped these with my Sony DV cam off of FoxNews. I don't know what kind of camera was used to actually videotape the shuttle. Do all camcorders use an aperture like the Sony one you've posted?

[GRRRRR]

You have done your homework and put up a worthwhile analysis of the pictures we have all seen. Your postulation, however possible, fails because of your presentation. Fair and balanced, we'll make up our own minds in the days and weeks to come.

It's been a long day, I'm going out to get some Chinese food... GRRRRR

[Justa]

If it's an out of focus image then how can an object, presumably at the same range, be seen in-focus, tumbling away from the main object?

[VaBthang4]

Dude I dont mean any disrespect but what in the hell are you talking about? I dont see any silhouette of the shuttle...I cant see anything but an out of focus reflection.

???

Am I missing something?

[not-an-ostrich]

No you are correct. The video was taken by a cameraman employeed by WFAA...John ???? I am in Dallas and have been watching WFAA since 8:35 a.m.