Newspaper: NASA looking into whether upper atmosphere electricity doomed Columbia

Sac Bee ^ | 2/7/03 | AP

[NormsRevenge]

SAN FRANCISCO(AP) - Federal scientists are investigating whether electricity in the upper atmosphere might have doomed the space shuttle Columbia as it soared over California, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

Investigators are also reviewing data recorded by a little-known network of instruments that might have detected a faint thunderclap at the same time a purplish bolt of lightning may have struck the shuttle high above Earth, the paper reported.

[Frank_Discussion]

Let me throw out some tin-foil: HAARP, perhaps? ;-P

[samtheman]

This has the same hollow sound of evasion as the gas-tank-spark "explanation" in the TWA 800 explosion.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Crisis management strategy:

Keep tossing out red herrings, to reduce the logical presumption that the lauch debris caused the critical damage. Push an alternative-per-day, none of which can be blamed on NASA management!

In the end, you can produce a report that is uncertain about the cause, lists ten possible causes, only one of which is NASA's fault.

CYA, CYA, CYA!

[NormsRevenge]

I hear ya. We know that electrical activity occurs in the upper realms of the atmosphere. And the fact that man has been tampering with Mother Nature for quite some time, it wouldn't be that far of a reach.

[sheik yerbouty]

NASa computers were recently hacked. Could the telemetry have been screwed up?

[Ben Ficklin]

On a thread yesterday someone put up a URL to site called ZULU news something or another that said the shuttle was brought down by a "Scaler Cannon" which was based on HAARP technology.

This website also said that the recent cold snap in the NEast wast also caused by the cannon. Tactical Climate Control.

It was a kooky place.

[NormsRevenge]

I don't think any possible scenario, no matter how unlikely, will be left unexplored.

[Frank_Discussion]

Youwwch!!! Had NOT thought of that!

(Just as a technical nit: Telemetry is data only, and is collected from the Shuttle. It might provide false data, but that would be internal errors, not really hackable. BUT, if the ground Control-and-Command (CNC) systems had been altered, that would be bad. I think this last is what you meant, right?)

[_Jim]

What did the National Lightning Detection Network show for that period?

[Frank_Discussion]

Quick, let's tell Art Bell! Seriously, HAARP is a kinda weird thing of a program. (Don't think it's the Shuttle-killer, though...)

[_Jim]

some tin-foil: HAARP, perhaps

Outside the 'aiming' capability of that large, planar phased-array antenna they use ...

[r9etb]

Investigators are also reviewing data recorded by a little-known network of instruments that might have detected a faint thunderclap at the same time a purplish bolt of lightning may have struck the shuttle high above Earth, the paper reported.

And somehow they'd be able to separate the thunderclap from a stratospheric lightning bolt from the sonic boom of the re-entering Shuttle....

Sounds a bit sketchy to me.

[cinFLA]

Though conditions Saturday were not right for the most dangerous occurrences,

NASA: "We will continue to look at those things we cannot see." /sarcasm

[Frank_Discussion]

Nope. They are truly looking at everything, a direct contrast to the Challenger investigation. Just give the team a chance, they are still brainstorming ideas.

[r9etb]

NASa computers were recently hacked. Could the telemetry have been screwed up?

No. Telemetry is what's transmitted from the Shuttle. The hack, if any, would only have affected how the ground processed the telemetry, and thus would have had no effect on the Shuttle.

It would, BTW, be really tough to hack the telemetry streams in the first place.

[_Jim]

HAARP is a kinda weird thing of a program

No it's not.

It's a scientific research program whose aims have been rather clearly spelled out ...

They don't use voodoo, magic potions or weird chants - they use commonly available components, materials, antennas, transmitters and receivers ... just in a large proportion ...

[_Jim]

a "Scaler Cannon" which was based on HAARP technology.

What exactly *is* HAARP technology?

The SAME THING could be accomplished by all US hams transmitting on the same frequency running their 1,000 watt limit, so, what is so d*mn secret about 'HAARP technology'?

[Frank_Discussion]

Don't get me wrong, _Jim. I'm not saying that I'm suspicous of it, because I'm not.

But you have to admit the scale of the thing is pretty unique and different from most (any?) other technical experiment out there. The SuperCollider would have been weird, too, in this way.

[tubebender]

They are also checking seismographs from the Ca coast into Nv. I heard on cBS radio this morning that the Air force took photos of Columbia before breakup with a resolution of 1" at 600 miles. It showed left wing leading edge damage. So many of these reports turn out to be unfounded that one must skeptical at times.