California photos appear to show start of disintegration

Ft Worth Star Telegram online byline: Los Angeles Daily News ^ | Monday, Feb 03, 2003 | unspecified

[_Jim]

California photos appear to show start of disintegration
Los Angeles Daily News

LOS ANGELES - To help with their investigation, NASA officials have asked for and received photographs of what may be the space shuttle Columbia starting to disintegrate as it flew over California early Saturday.

NASA officials asked Daily News photographer Gene Blevins and aerospace photographer William Hartenstein on Sunday for copies of photographs they took of the Columbia on Saturday morning as it passed over the Owens Valley in California. It disintegrated minutes later over Texas.

One of Blevins' Owens Valley photos of Columbia was published Sunday in the Daily News. Blevins, of Van Nuys, is a free-lance photographer.

"If we can be of any help, we're glad to," Blevins told a federal official as he made arrangements to transmit his photos to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

In a news conference from Houston on Sunday afternoon, NASA space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said investigators were interested in the statements of observers who saw what appeared to be early problems with Columbia over California, before the shuttle broke up.

Dittemore said observer statements would be compared with technical data in an effort to find a cause.

Blevins and Hartenstein made their photographs when they set up their cameras before dawn Saturday morning near the California Institute of Technology's Owens Valley Radio Observatory, hundreds of miles north of Los Angeles, between the Sierra Nevada and the White Mountains.

As Columbia passed to the north, Blevins said, he saw what looked like glowing pieces of lava breaking away under the shuttle. As it went east, he said, he saw a big red flare that appeared to drop from underneath and disappear.

On Sunday, he and Hartenstein transmitted about a half-dozen of their high-resolution photos and prepared a statement for NASA.

"It's a little overwhelming to think that our photographs could help in the investigation," said Hartenstein, of Burbank.

One of Blevins' photos, in addition to being published by the Daily News on Sunday, was transmitted by The Associated Press to newspapers across the country and was likely to also appear in Time magazine.

[_Jim]

So ... we *do* have some tangible, visible indications all was not well with STS-107 as far east as, well, California ...

[_Jim]

Ping!

[Arkinsaw]

They put up this story without reprinting the photos?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Maybe it's just me but i'm sick of hearing about these California pictures without seeing them.

[dep]

no kidding! this is about the sixth claim of stunning probative photographs that has come out in the last day -- and none of 'em has the friggin' pictures!

dep

[arthurus]

Don't advertise pictures without providing pictures. I'd hate to just take some journalist's word for it.

[_Jim]

Yes they did ... (no pics that is).

Have to check Time and AP - as referenced in this article ...

[_Jim]

We're getting a lot of material, inclding tiles, picked up in Johnson County - south of Ft. Worth.

[CPOSharky]

Fox was showing video all day about this California event.

[_Jim]

I was telling HOWLIN that very same thing ... but you know women ...

[Jorge]

So ... we *do* have some tangible, visible indications all was not well with STS-107 as far east as, well, California ...

Yes, and the earlier in the break up the indications are...especially if they can recover any debri in CA...the more clues we will have as to the cause.

[j.havenfarm]

It started earlier. Last night on KOVR news out of Sacramento, I saw tape shot by an amatuer astonomer in RENO. The tape shows the shuttle as a bright light moving across the screen. Just as it passed in front of Venus, the tape plainly shows a piece of the light detach and fall back.

[Howlin]

So ... we *do* have some tangible, visible indications all was not well with STS-107 as far east as, well, California ...

Where exactly does it say in this article that it's been PROVEN that is what it is?

BTW, your "women" remark pretty much shows what a jerk you are.

[Howlin]

Say, Jim, why don't you go ahead and post that screen snapshot you said you had this afternoon. This would be a great thread to post it on, don't you think?

[mikegi]

From a story on DailyNews.com:

That's all I've found so far. The image is so small that there's really nothing to see.

[Fred Mertz]

NASA officials asked Daily News photographer Gene Blevins and aerospace photographer William Hartenstein on Sunday for copies of photographs they took of the Columbia on Saturday morning as it passed over the Owens Valley in California.

Why would NASA want evidence from these two Bush-haters? LOL < / sarcasm >

TLB is correct again.

[Howlin]

Jim has a picture.....a screen snapshot.....he told us all this afternoon and offered to put it up.

Haven't seen it yet though.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

What you really want to say would get you banned. How someone can make a case like this idiot is and not see behind the lies of TWA800 shows what an idiot, not jerk, they are.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I have one of it over Hawaii on fire. Wanna see? I am better than Jim.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Oops, I forgot. He is an aviation expert with NO aviation experience. Go figure.