Posted on 12/30/2008 2:11:10 PM PST by Joiseydude
What is amazing is the pilot and commander had the presence of mind to try a spur of the moment, non-practiced, non-trained, procedure to try to get some hydraulic pressure.
Sudden depressurization would have been mercifully blackout delivery prior to the tearing and ripping traumas. The worst NASA deaths were in cabin fires.
I have always said that liberal arts majors should be REQUIRED to take AND PASS some basic technical courses to give them a rounded education.
Don't pass...no graduate....
Hey, they made us engineering students get a "rounded education" with classes like psychology, literature, music appreciation, and art history. That was the mid '80s. By now it includes gay, womyn, and black studies too.....
I believe that’s called “the right stuff.”
I can forgive a typo. Can't forgive morons.
Speaking of morons, is John Roberts still pretending to be a "journalist" over there?
I have completely stopped watching.
“What is amazing is the pilot and commander had the presence of mind to try a spur of the moment, non-practiced, non-trained, procedure to try to get some hydraulic pressure.”
If you are going to die, die trying to solve the problem.
Entering the atmosphere at 18x speed of sound, I don’t think better gloves would have helped for more than a few seconds. But they still need to try to improve and perfect knowledge and equipment for future programs.
"We've moved on," Chadwick said. "I'll read it. But it's private. It's our business ... Our family has moved on from the accident and we don't want to reopen wounds.
With respect to her and the families, I'm afraid it isn't private when a governmental agency and billions of tax dollars are involved.
“Hey, they made us engineering students get a “rounded education” with classes like psychology, literature, music appreciation, and art history. That was the mid ‘80s. By now it includes gay, womyn, and black studies too.....”
I received a BSEE in 1984, and like you I had to take a bunch of liberal arts courses. (I enjoyed most of them) Taking some very elementary courses in math and science would help them NOT sound like idiots!
For something like that, quicker is better than prolonged agony and the realization of what’s happening.
But Snake Plischkin could of saved the crew.
I will NEVER forget that thread...I was on it after I woke up...read from post #13 through the rest of the first page- amazing...
the other thread I’ll never forget is the soldier in Iraq who started the thread immediately after President Bush flew out of Baghdad after making a secret trip to Iraq to visit the troops on Thanksgiving about six years ago....he was an hour ahead of the media and people here thought he was nuts...hands down the best thread on Freep I ever saw....
Nauti Nurse’s Katrina threads for me...
“They never get anything of a technical nature correct, do they? “
Just think about global “warming” , then think of the flunkouts at CNN/NBC/etc/
‘Nuff said.
Yeah, my degree was in physics, and I remember having to sit through all that tripe too. Zzzzz.
I took "History & Philosophy of Science" for one of the liberal-arts requirements, which was actually a good class.
Anthropology was mildly interesting, but the professor was an out-and-out socialist. Those who took the sociology elective instead of anthro told me it was even worse; hard-Left blather about Nicaragua and El Salvador and Cuba and the evils of Ronald Reagan non-stop for four months (this was in the 80's for me too, back when we resisted the commies instead of electing them.)
My gorge rises whenever I think of the modernist literature class I took for the fine-arts requirement, and I feel an urge to reach for a pistol. A pity the Cinema Appreciation class was overbooked that year.
As far as real science goes, the school required just one pathetically easy 3-hour 100-level science course, with no laboratory, for all the artsy fartsy lotus eaters. Most took Biology or Geology 100.
The pilot, Rick Husband, was a friend from the first grade all the way thru college. The last time I saw him was at a Christmas party at his father-in-law’s house in Amarillo. He spoke to my brother’s church in Houston and my nephew was quite taken by the man.
I always watched the shuttle when Rick was flying and watched his last flight. I always felt my friend did everything he could to save his crew. My prayers still go out to Evelyn and his kids. Rest in peace my friend. You are truly a hero. red
“For something like that, quicker is better than prolonged agony and the realization of what’s happening.
Wouldn’t have been any “prolonged agony”. Once they depressurized, and without a sealed suit, the time of useful consciousness would have been a couple of seconds (if not less). The Russians lost a crew because of this. The pilots would have been heads down on the perceived emergency (which is the type of mindset they’d been trained for over their careers). The state of compartmented concentration (sometimes mistaken for detachment) is difficult to describe, unless you’re in a job where you’re continuously trained and taught that there is always a solution to the problem (even if there isn’t). Cops, military, firemen, and pilots know what this is all about.
From what I saw of the surviving cabin videotape, most of the crew was along for the ride during the reentry. There wasn’t really anything the non-pilots could, or should, have done.
The results were sad, but every one of those folks were aware they were riding in an experimental aircraft. The safety standards for space travel does not meet civilian expectations. As in all ventures, greater gains tend to follow greater risks. It will be this way for some time to come in the space program.
WTF did he think was happening . . . it was circling around for another approach like a passenger jet?!
I hope it stays that way!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.