Astronomer saw shuttle apparently in trouble over California

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | 02/01/03 | John Antczak

[socal_parrot]

By John Antczak
ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:03 a.m., February 1, 2003

LOS ANGELES – Space shuttle Columbia appeared to begin trailing fiery debris as it passed over Eastern California early Saturday, well before its destruction over Texas, according to a California Institute of Technology astronomer who witnessed its fiery transit.

Anthony Beasley observed the shuttle's re-entry from outside his home in Bishop, Calif., near Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory, where he is project manager of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy.

"As it tracked from west to east over the Owens Valley it was leaving a bright trail. As it actually moved over the valley there were a couple of flashes. ... Then we could see there were things clearly trailing the orbiter subsequent to that," Beasley said.

Beasley said he, his wife, Anne, and mother-in-law, Anne Finley, had gone outside in the early morning darkness to watch the re-entry from the small town 225 miles north of Los Angeles. He said the sky was clear and dark, and the shuttle was immediately visible when it cleared the Sierra Nevada peaks to the west of Bishop.

He said he had never witnessed a shuttle re-entry before and is not an authority on shuttles, but he immediately thought Columbia was having problems.

"In particular, there was one very clear event where there was a piece that backed off the orbiter. ... It was giving off its own light, then it slowly fell from visibility," he said.

Beasley said he thought the shuttle might be losing some of the heat-resistant tiles that protect it during the fiery re-entry. He said he did not learn of the shuttle's destruction until he went to the observatory and compared notes with two news photographers who had arranged to photograph the re-entry through a telescope.

Beasley said they compared notes and all agreed they had seen what he termed "the bright event, the third event."

"The analogy, I think, is it looked like the shuttle dropped a flare," he said.

He described the scene again: "Pretty soon after we started to see it track there were brief flashes of light. It would sort of flash a little bit and there was an indication of material trailing the orbiter. They would sort of disappear from view. ... That happened two or three times. One of these was very bright. It was a very clear thing. It separated itself from where the orbiter is. It sort of fell behind in the trail and it was burning itself. It was hot itself ... and then the orbiter continued heading toward Texas."

[r9etb]

What? Where are the photos! Will a telescope be able to track something moving that fast?

The photos have no doubt been impounded for use by the investigators. Beasley's description seems to indicate he saw the very beginning of the catastrophe. Photos through a telescope may well have resolution sufficient to identify what broke off.

[TLBSHOW]

Fred this shuttle was in trouble the second it made re-entry. The truth is I never said it broke up over california but that it was in trouble over california and Nevada for sure. I say it was in trouble the minute of re-entry. I am so tired of the thread nanny. I will send you a link for other thread nanny adventures here today! LOL

anyways this just in from Utah!


His video also shows the space shuttle was having problems as it passed over Utah and that the orbiter was beginning to break up.

http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?sid=8138&nid=8

[Howlin]

Thank you very much!

As the shuttle was traveling at 18 times the speed of sound at an altitude of 63,100 meters (207,000 feet), Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas lost communications about 8 a.m. (1400 GMT). Prior to loss of communications there were no indications of abnormal activity with the shuttle's return to Earth appearing normal.

Now, from leadpenny's thread:

To: leadpenny

Supposed to be passing by around 8:03 here in Dallas.

Getting ready to check it out.

12 posted on 02/01/2003 8:56 AM EST by ken in texas

ken in texas SAW it when it went over and now realizes he saw it break apart.

Thanks for proving you were wrong.

[Jael]

Prior to loss of communications there were no indications of abnormal activity with the shuttle's return to Earth appearing normal.

I believe that during the press conference one of the flight managers said that they had received system warnings prior to the loss of communications.

[r9etb]

For some reason he was talking about Hawaii anyhow, not California

There's a facility called the "Air Force Maui Optical Site", or AMOS -- a set of high-resolution IR and visible cameras that look at re-entering bodies. The Shuttle would have been an obvious target. The Shuttle would have gone over the horizon for them just before it made landfall over California.

[Howlin]

That quote came right off the NASA home page.

[TLBSHOW]

His video also shows the space shuttle was having problems as it passed over Utah and that the orbiter was beginning to break up.

http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?sid=8138&nid=8

[Erasmus]

Let us assume that the shuttle was 50 miles up over California, and for simplicity's sake, that the earth is a sphere with a radius of 4000 miles.

Then, you could see the shuttle on your local horizon, barring obstructions of course, from a distance of about 630 miles.

The furthest simultaneous observer would be 630 miles exactly on the other side of the shuttle from you, for a maximum separation of 1260 miles.

Ergo, there would be a brief time, perhaps a minute or two, during which the shuttle would be between California and East Texas and be unobservable from the ground in either place.

This is all rough calculation on the back of an envelope (actually, the front of an HP-42S <)B^).

[Howlin]

I'll take NASA's word, if you don't mind.

[Howlin]

Thank you for the calculation.

So, somebody in, say, California could have seen the shuttle on their furtherest horizon and it could have actually been over another state, right?

[TLBSHOW]

The key was the re-entry that is where it all started not over Texas, Texas was the finale breaking point. It was in trouble right from the point of re-entry! Just my opinion of course but like Howlin said!

To: TLBSHOW

And we all know how right you usually are.

Keep NASA's feet to the fire!


98 posted on 02/01/2003 10:26 PM EST by Howlin

[Howlin]

And we all know how right you usually are.

And you, of course, are too dense to know I was mocking you, so I'll point it out.

You switch your position on issues so often you're like a Weeble.

[TLBSHOW]

I'll take NASA's word, if you don't mind.


That is fine with me I sent you the link! LOL

So when NASA says it started before Texas later this week you will agree of course. Time is on my side as normal!

[Howlin]

Time is on my side as normal!

There's another sentence that doesn't make any sense at all.

[Chesterbelloc]

This is all rough calculation on the back of an envelope

---

Your rough calculations are very accurate. This is an alert that I got the other day:


ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Brian Webb, KD6NRP Ventura County, California E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp

2003 January 30 (Thursday) 20:00 PST

---

SPACE SHUTTLE REENTRY VISIBLE

The Space Shuttle Columbia is set to land this Saturday morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Prior to landing, the spacecraft will reenter the Earth's atmosphere and become an artificial meteor.

During reentry, Columbia's groundtrack will pass north of San Francisco at 05:53 PST and continue east. The Shuttle will then pass immediately south of Lake Tahoe and cross southern Utah.

Because the Shuttle will cross northern California before sunrise and be at an extremely high altitude (above 220,000 feet), the reentry should be visible over a wide area. The event will theoretically be visible up to 575 miles north and south of the track. However, at this distance, the vehicle will attain a maximum elevation of 0 degrees.

In reality, the maximum distance the reentry will be visible is probably about 431 miles north or south of the groundtrack. This means observers across all of southern California have a chance to see it.

If you live in southern California and would like to see the reentry, my advice is to go to a very dark site with an unobstructed northern horizon. Then scan the horizon from the northwest to the northeast from 5:48 to 5:58 a.m.

For the best view, go north and try to get a close to the groundtrack as possible. Rick Baldridge has a map of the track and a plot of the spacecraft altitude versus distance-to-touchdown posted on the Web at:

http://photos.yahoo.com/rickbaldridge

Go to the area titled "Astronomy Stuff" and look for the files "__hr_Shuttle Reentry over Bay Area" and "__hr_STS Reentry Dist vs Altitude".

Regardless of where you observe the event from, try to bring along an observing partner. Locating a fleeting manmade meteor is a lot easier if you have another set of eyes scanning the sky.

Current Space Shuttle mission status is available at:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/status.html

If any of you end up seeing Saturday morning's reentry, please let me know.

_______________________________________________

To subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter, go to:

http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/launch-alert

Questions and comments regarding this newsletter and editorial contributions should be directed to kd6nrp@earthlink.net

[TomServo]

Keep NASA's feet to the fire!

You owe me a keyboard, damn you...;-)

[TLBSHOW]

I was mocking you says Howlin....


Like I needed to be told that you are mocking me. I just wanted to get it down on record from your typing fingers.

Thanks for playing! :>)

Now that you have spoiled another good thread pat yourself on the back!

[r9etb]

BTW, CNN is now reporting that tonight the people at NASA say it might have been something at the BACK of the shuttle that might have gone wrong -- I cannot remember the name -- but the part he pointed to look like flaps (if that is what you would call them.)

Body flap, perhaps?

From another thread:

This is from the Dallas TV video. It appears to show the Shuttle as seen from behind. The dark rectangle in the middle looks like the body flap -- and the right-hand corner appears broken.

Over Dallas, of course, things have been falling off for a while -- something like a main engine could have broken off and damaged the flap....

[Howlin]

I swear I thought it started with an E or a I sound......any ideas?

[Howlin]

Any thread with your bogus claims on it can hardly be called unspoiled.