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September 13, 2009 (by Asif Shamim) - An F-16A from the IDFAF crashed in the Southern hills near Hebron on Sunday. The pilot who was killed was the son of the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003. The pilot Lt. Assaf Ramon, 20, was on his 47th training flight since completing his pilot training in June 2009. The aircraft crashed during a routine flight as part of the advanced pilot training course. IAF commander Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan and the head of the IDF Manpower Division Avi Zamir personally delivered the sad...

An F-16 from the IDFAF crashed in the Southern hills near Hebron. The pilot who was killed was the son of the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003. he pilot Lt. Assaf Ramon, 20, was on his 47th training flight since completing his pilot training in June 2009. He was flying an unarmed training mission when the accident happened. IAF commander Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan and the head of the IDF Manpower Division Avi Zamir personally delivered the sad news to his mother, Rona Ramon's at there home. The news of the...

Tragedy struck the family of late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon again Sunday, when his son Asaf Ramon was killed in a crash while flying an Israel Air Force aircraft. Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut was one of seven crew members killed when the U.S. space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry on February 1, 2003. Asaf Ramon's aircraft crashed near the settlement of Bnei Haver, in the rugged terrain of the Hebron Hills. The Israel Defense Forces carried out an aerial and terrestrial search of the area for some 90 minutes before locating the crash site. Advertisement IAF Blackhawk ("Yanshuf") helicopters...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronauts on the shuttle Columbia were trying to regain control of their craft before it broke apart in 2003, but there was no chance of surviving the accident, a NASA report said on Tuesday. From the crew's perspective, the shift from what appeared to be a normal descent on Feb. 1, 2003, into tragedy happened so fast that the astronauts did not even have time to close the visors on their helmets. Columbia broke apart about 20 kilometres over Texas as it headed for landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The cause of the...

Seat restraints, pressure suits and helmets of the doomed crew of the space shuttle Columbia didn't work well, leading to "lethal trauma" as the out-of-control ship lost pressure and broke apart, killing all seven astronauts, a new NASA report says. At least one crew member was alive and pushing buttons for half a minute after a first loud alarm sounded, as he futilely tried to right Columbia during that disastrous day Feb. 1, 2003. In fact, by that time, there was nothing anyone could have done to survive as the fatally damaged shuttle streaked across Texas to a landing in...

Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003. "When we got it, it was two hunks of metal stuck together. We couldn't even tell it was a hard drive. It was burned and the edges were melted," said Edwards, an engineer at Kroll Ontrack Inc., outside Minneapolis. "It looked pretty bad at first glance, but we always...

Using data recovered from a damaged computer hard-drive that was aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, scientists have recently learned more about why the act of shaking a material can quickly transform it into something completely different. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is ordinary ketchup. Shake the bottle and the semi-solid paste becomes a runny liquid. Food scientists do the shaking in a controlled way by putting ketchup (and other processed foods) into a rheometer (rheo, meaning "flow") to see how its viscosity -- the scientific word for stickiness -- decreases when shaken. Robert Berg...

PALMDALE - The tragedy was felt nationwide when the space shuttle Columbia and its seven-astronaut crew were lost five years ago today when the orbiter broke apart during re-entry. The loss was especially acute for the hundreds of people at The Boeing Co.'s site in Palmdale, birthplace of the shuttles and home to their various modifications. From the earliest years of the space shuttle program, the employees of Rockwell International, which later became part of Boeing, have felt a personal connection to the space program and to the astronauts. "I've never seen anything like it. There's just something special about...

STS-2 Mission, 12 November 1981, Florida, USA. Photographer U.S. Navy Captain and NASA Astronaut John W. Young Image Links3000 x 3000 pixels and 1600 x 1600 pixels via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050129.htm (photo 14)

NASA plans to change the space shuttle's external fuel tank again, this time removing a troublesome section of protective foam that broke off during the launch of Discovery last July, the space agency said Thursday. The removal of more foam from the tank and further testing to find the root cause of cracks in the foam could lead to a longer delay until the next shuttle flight, tentatively set for May. But NASA official Bill Gerstenmaier, who is leading the investigation into the foam loss, said that's not necessarily the case. The targeted foam section protects a cable tray that...

Thursday, July 28, 2005 9:27 a.m. EDT Shuttle Foam Loss Linked to EPA Regs As recently as last month, NASA had been warned that foam insulation on the space shuttle's external fuel tank could sheer off as it did in the 2003 Columbia disaster - a problem that has plagued space shuttle flights since NASA switched to a non-Freon-based type of foam insulation to comply with Clinton Administration Environmental Protection Agency regulations. "Despite exhaustive work and considerable progress over the past 2-1/2 years, NASA has been unable to eliminate the possibility of dangerous pieces of foam and ice from breaking...

NASAWatch Editor's note: "CNN Headline news is flashing several pictures of NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory standing on the tarmac receiving the bodies of the Columbia crew at Dover Air Force Base in February 2003 and claiming that the photos are of caskets containing war dead arriving home from Iraq in 2004."

Josh will honor the NASA Columbia crew with a performance of his new hit “You Raise Me Up” from his multi-platinum CD “CLOSER” at Super Bowl XXXVIII at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Sunday, Feb. 1. Josh will be accompanied by an 80 person local choir will perform as part of the pre-game show.

Science - AP Impact Test Supports Shuttle Foam Theory2 hours, 41 minutes ago By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer SAN ANTONIO - A pair of space shuttle wing parts cracked and were shoved out of alignment when a chunk of foam slammed into them in a high-speed test, bolstering the theory that the stiff, lightweight insulation brought down Columbia. "We demonstrated for the first time that foam at the speed of the accident can actually break" reinforced carbon wing pieces, said NASA (news - web sites) executive Scott Hubbard, the member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in charge of...

Fetus found at shuttle debris search facility 03/07/2003 Associated Press CORSICANA, Texas - Authorities are questioning women helping with the search for space shuttle Columbia debris after what appeared to be a dead newborn baby or fetus was found in a portable toilet at a search command post facility in East Texas Thursday. The area's tight security has led the initial investigation to focus on women who are part of the shuttle search, Corsicana Police Chief G.M. Cox said. The North Central Texas facility has a single-access entry staffed with a sheriff's deputy and local police and personnel are...

Columbia investigators work complex puzzle 03/06/2003 Associated Press HOUSTON - In the first public hearing of the Columbia investigation board, NASA officials defended decisions that gave private contractors much of the direct responsibility for maintaining and operating the space shuttle. Seven members of the board, searching for the cause of the shuttle's breakup, questioned space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore and Johnson Space Center Director Jefferson Davis Howell about NASA's policies that shifted much of the responsibility for fixing and flying the shuttle to private contractors. Both Howell and Dittemore said safety has not been compromised and remains the...

Amarillo honors Columbia commander 1,000 attend hometown tribute to man who reached for the stars 02/22/2003 Associated Press AMARILLO - Almost 21 years ago, Rick and Evelyn Husband were married here at First Presbyterian Church. Friday, at that same place of worship, a thousand people turned out in a tribute to Col. Husband, commander of the shuttle Columbia. Mrs. Husband, who has rarely made public remarks since the shuttle broke apart Feb. 1 over Texas, killing her husband and six other astronauts, spoke about the love he gave their two children and how much he will be missed. "I...

A storm of particles and radiation from the Sun, a kind of disturbance that has disabled or destroyed satellites on dozens of occasions, crossed the path of the space shuttle Columbia just as it was making its descent to Earth, scientists said yesterday. The disturbance was detected by at least two NASA space probes as it passed from deep space toward Earth on Feb. 1, said Dr. Devrie S. Intriligator, director of the space plasma laboratory at the Carmel Research Center, a private laboratory in Santa Monica, Calif., who discovered the event by examining data from the probes. Experts...

Left wing fragment could be key discovery Columbia investigators sort pieces of the puzzle 02/11/2003 By JIM MORRIS / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON - In perhaps the most significant development since Columbia disintegrated Feb. 1 over Texas, NASA confirmed Monday that it has found and is examining a piece of the shuttle's left wing. Michael C. Kostelnik, a NASA deputy associate administrator, said the 1 ½-foot wing fragment was discovered last week near Corsicana and had been taken to Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La. The section - which includes a 2-foot piece of carbon-composite panel, the...

Mystery object draws interest Investigators weighing whether chunk of ice damaged Columbia 02/10/2003 By ALEXANDRA WITZE / The Dallas Morning News HOUSTON - A mysterious object - possibly a softball-size chunk of ice - that fell off Columbia gained NASA's interest Sunday, but investigators said again that virtually nothing has been ruled out. As the search for clues for what went wrong entered its second week in the shuttle disaster, the agency is considering a big change for the astronauts left in space. NASA and its Russian counterpart may swap the three explorers now aboard the International Space Station...

<p>JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas (CNN) --NASA officials said Friday that they were examining photographs taken by an Air Force tracking camera shortly before the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated but were not yet convinced that they held the secrets to the final moments of the fatal flight.</p>

Unfathomable shuttle puzzle Be undaunted, past investigators say; key clue might be waiting 02/09/2003 By JULIET MACUR / The Dallas Morning News Clues to the mystery could be anywhere, from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the bayous of Louisiana, stuck in trees, hidden on mountaintops or drowned in murky water. More than a week after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, investigators are piecing together what could be the biggest and most complicated puzzle in aviation and aeronautics history. No recovery effort has been spread over so many square miles or so much varied terrain. No...

Columbia crew praised at East Texas memorial 02/08/2003 Associated Press LUFKIN, Texas - In an East Texas town that is the command center in the search for debris from space shuttle Columbia, the seven astronauts who died were remembered Saturday not only for being heroes, but also for being a fun-loving group. "Just seven days ago we were awaiting the successful return of the space shuttle Columbia," Gov. Rick Perry told the group of about 1,000 gathered at the First Baptist church. "Today we mourn the lives of the seven on board, so close to their final destination." Perry...

NASA recovers shuttle wing section 02/07/2003 Associated Press NACOGDOCHES, Texas - NASA said Friday it has found an important piece of one of Columbia's wings and was removing it to a collection site in Fort Worth. NASA spaceflight office deputy Michael Kostelnik called it "a significant recovery." "We do have a large piece of one of the wings. It's not clear which wing this is, but obviously given the (unusual instrument readings) we have on the descent coming through the left wing, obviously this structure is very important." The wing piece was being taken to a military installation in...

Shuttle disaster disrupts quiet calm of life in the piney woods 02/07/2003 By LISA FALKENBERG / The Associated PressSAN AUGUSTINE, Texas — From the front window of a lonely store, Aimee Garrett and her tiny terrier "Sugar" watch the incessant blur of disaster crew trucks, state troopers and military vehicles that roar down the highway connecting Nacogdoches to San Augustine."Nobody comes here unless they have to," said 30-year-old Garrett, who works in the frame country store off the highway in the tiny community of Chireno. "It's just another day here."But it's far from just another day around Chireno and many...

From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk Published 2/5/2003 6:45 PM HIGHLANDS, N.C., Feb. 5 (UPI) -- This here's the 336th Report ta the Folks Back Home from the (More er Less) Honorable Billybob, cyberCongressman from Western Carolina. The main subjeck ov las week was, ov course, the loss ov the Shuttle Columbia, with all hands. So I wanna rat about it. However, ma able assistant, J. Armor, Esq., wazza student ov history n lit'rature, way back when. So I'll turn this over ta him. Those in Peril on the SeaThe Navy Hymn was written in 1860, by a man...

Investigative board members arrive in Texas 02/04/2003 Associated Press NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Members of the independent board investigating the Columbia disaster arrived Tuesday morning to get a firsthand look at the debris being collected from across a vast stretch of countryside. "One of the first things we had to do is go out and look at some of the debris. It makes the accident more personal to us. This prevents it from becoming an abstract event," said retired Navy Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., chairman of the commission. "I know that we won't go out and solve the mystery...

Nation honors fallen crew 02/04/2003 From Staff and Wire Reports President Bush and first lady Laura Bush traveled to Houston Tuesday to lead the nation in mourning the seven Columbia astronauts at a private memorial service at NASA headquarters. The astronauts' family members were being joined by an estimated 10,000 space agency employees, who paused from their work to attend. Also on hand: former President Bush, Gov. Rick Perry, John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon. In his remarks, President Bush was expected to pay tribute to...

Massive hunt turns up nose cone but doesn't omit tiniest fragments 02/04/2003 By LEE HANCOCK and TODD BENSMAN / The Dallas Morning News NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The unparalleled scavenger hunt for remnants of the crumbled Columbia expanded and intensified Monday as the first physical clues of the space shuttle's disintegration over Texas were delivered to federal investigators. At Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La., some human remains arrived Monday after an honor guard met two caskets holding other remains Sunday. "We're being respectful and honorable with the remains that have been, and will be, brought here in the...

Searching for answers NASA says it may have taken liftoff damage too lightly 02/04/2003 By BRUCE NICHOLS / The Dallas Morning News HOUSTON - Space agency officials said Monday that they might have underestimated the damage caused to shuttle Columbia when debris fell from the external tank shortly after launch and struck the left wing. "We're completely redoing the analysis from scratch. ... We want to know if we made any mistakes," said Ron Dittemore, shuttle program director. The piece of insulation that fell off the shuttle's giant external tank 81 seconds after launch is estimated to have been...

Video shows shuttle may have shed debris over Arizona 02/04/2003 By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV NEWS 8 EXCLUSIVE There is now dramatic new evidence that the shuttle Columbia may have been in trouble before it disintegrated over Texas. The spacecraft's demise may have begun much farther west - captured on tape in Arizona. The sky over Wupatki National Monument was still dark Saturday morning when Scott and Chris Valentine got up early to shoot pictures of Columbia en route to a landing in Florida. Also Online Video: Amateur tape could hold clues The Valentines were space fans, so they...

Church unites in sorrow for two lost Houston congregation sheds tears, raises voices in song 02/03/2003 By LINDA K. WERTHEIMER / The Dallas Morning News HOUSTON - The singers in the Grace Community Church chorus normally beam when they're belting out praises to the Lord. But Sunday, they clutched tissues as they tried to hold back tears. When space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas skies Saturday, it hit particularly hard at Grace Community. Two of the seven astronauts killed - shuttle commander Rick Husband and payload commander Michael Anderson - were members. Col. Husband was also a longtime member...

Search just starting Debris, already found in 33 Texas counties, sought in recovery effort 02/03/2003 By LEE HANCOCK and DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News LUFKIN, Texas - It is an unprecedented search for the pieces of an unimaginable puzzle. In the woods and in the air, on horseback and by boat, searchers combed East Texas on Sunday for the remains of space shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew. "We are beginning to make progress," shuttle program director Ron Dittemore said at a news conference in Houston. "It's going to take us some days and weeks" to begin...

Top Stories WRECKAGE SCATTERS ACROSS ET By: JACQUE HILBURN, Staff Writer February 01, 2003 REMNANTS FOUND: Another possible artifact from the shuttle landed in the Arriola-Cooke Cemetery off Texas Highway 7 in Nacogdoches County. (Staff Photo By D.J. Peters) A fast-moving vapor, flashes of light and a series of explosions erupting across East Texas signaled the abrupt end of space shuttle Columbia moments before it was scheduled to land in Florida. Six Americans and one Israeli astronaut died when the craft exploded over Dallas, peppering East Texas and portions of Louisiana with debris and bits of wreckage, NASA officials...

Kuwaitis express sorrow U.S. troops preparing for war were concerned, 'hoping for the best' 02/02/2003 By JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News KUWAIT - Thousands of U.S. troops preparing for a possible war with Iraq got the news of the space shuttle Columbia's loss from televisions in mess halls and recreation centers. "Obviously there was a lot of interest, and hoping for the best," said Army Col. Rick Thomas, chief of public affairs with the Coalition Forces Land Component Command at Camp Doha, Kuwait. The loss also dominated discussions among Kuwaitis, who gather in evening socials to discuss...

Columbia began era of shuttle Tragedy, worries pursued program after that first 1981 flight 02/02/2003 By KAREN PATTERSON / The Dallas Morning News Columbia first roared into orbit April 12, 1981, and took an uncertain nation with it. Ronald Reagan had just left a Washington, D.C., hospital the day before, after an assassin's bullet barely missed his heart. Recuperating, he awoke 10 minutes before the day's event, the first launch of a shuttle into orbit. No lofty White House speeches were planned that Sunday morning. "It's a spectacular sight," the president said. But even then, Columbia was tainted by...

Most of the world is grieving, but some say 'God has retaliated' 02/02/2003 The Washington Post LONDON – Much of the world expressed shock, grief and condolences Saturday for the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew, but some in the Arab world saw the tragedy as divine justice against the United States and Israel. < snip > But on the streets of Baghdad, Iraq, where many are braced for U.S. military action, some said the loss of the shuttle and its crew was God's retribution. "We are happy that it broke up," government employee Abdul...

Debris brings out curiosity, grief 02/02/2003 By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News NACOGDOCHES, Texas - A small, curved sheet of metal transformed a downtown parking lot into an instant memorial to the seven astronauts who perished Saturday. Hundreds of people showed up to look at the 3-by-3-foot piece of debris from space shuttle Columbia. It was one of hundreds that showered the landscape from North Texas east to the Louisiana border - objects including a space helmet, shuttle tiles and a 4-by-6-foot door. Chris Nelson and his family stood at the edge of the parking lot surrounded...

'It just kept rolling and thundering' For Texans, hearing was believing that something wasn't quite right 02/02/2003 By MICHAEL GRANBERRY / The Dallas Morning News Vaudie Dowdy of Tyler gazed out her big picture window, using a quiet Saturday morning to think and pray. Ken Foster sat at his kitchen table in Rowlett, reading newspaper stories about war and terrorism. Gary Hunziker and his wife stepped onto their patio in Plano to watch the space shuttle Columbia fly overhead. Suddenly, an explosion rattled windows and shook rooftops across North Texas and East Texas. To people waking to the new...

Suspicion falls on wing tiles But heat-shield damage during liftoff is only one possibility, experts say. 02/02/2003 By ED TIMMS / The Dallas Morning News It didn't seem like much at the time: As Columbia rumbled off the launching pad two weeks ago, a chunk of insulation apparently sloughed off the main fuel tank and struck the space shuttle's left wing. But after Columbia broke apart Saturday, much of the speculation about what caused the tragedy focused on damage to the heat-absorbing tiles on that wing. NASA officials reported that heat sensors in the left wing began to fail...

Rush- Countdown Signals 1982 Dedicated today to Space Shuttle Columbia 2003 as it was written for the first launch in 1981. RIP. Dedicated with thanks to astronauts of Space Shuttle Columbia Young & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation-Rush Lit up with anticipation We arrive at the launching site The sky is still dark, nearing dawn On the Florida coastline Circling choppers slash the night With roving searchlight beams This magic day when super-science Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams Floodlit in the hazy distance The star of this unearthly show Venting vapours,...