So many years later and several states away, I watched the Columbia break apart in the skies over my home in Dallas/Fort Worth.
Both accidents were the result of repeatedly ignored warnings.
Too bad we can’t re-instill the right stuff from the days of Apollo 13 into NASA of today.
At 18,0000 miles per hour, there ain’t much hope for anyone in case of an emergency............
One of the earliest indicators of a problem with this shuttle was a live thread on FR.
A poster in the western US posted a thread querying/indicating visible problems with the shuttle re-entry.
Sadly, the poster was correct that there were problems.
We followed the incident to its conclusion.
And let's not forget that both accidents were also caused by NASA's insistence on going with the cheapest possible design for a shuttle.
I’m sorry you saw both tragedies I was holding my breath watching sts-124 take off but went home filled with pride.
I’ll never forget watching the video of friends and family of Christa McAuliffe watching the Challenger launch and when it exploded, and the columns of smoke diverged, one of them said, “Is it supposed to look like that?”
So sad. I can’t imagine watching that happen knowing somebody inside.
Ugh.
I think you’re bad luck.
Could you perhaps plan to maybe check into a hotel under the flight path of Comrade 0bama’s incoming plane to Washington next month? ;)
a shuttle is the most complex system ever developed by man kind. Even cars and mp3 players (see Zune) have glitches. Stuff happens. Of course we want to minimize hazards, but only hindsight is 20/20.
I heard the boom. One minute later my parents called and told me that my dad was outside getting the paper and had seen the falling debris.
The memory still gives me shudders.
I watched it from the causeway five miles across the lagoon. My aunt worked for a NASA contractor and got me a launch pass. Devastating! I was snapping pictures with my girlfriend's camera and pulled off the shuttle to get a pic of the steam cloud on the ground at the moment the shuttle exploded. It took everybody there a few moments to realize what had happened.
We had driven out there once or twice before at 0 dark thirty and the launch was scrubbed each time. We had one last chance to see a launch before we had to start back to CO. Boy did we get more than we bargained for. After they finally let traffic leave the cape we went to Disney World to use our last day on a three-day ticket. We just wandered around like zombies most of that day. How do you have fun after watching something like that?
I know they were frustrated with the delays but they should have scrubbed that launch too.
If memory serves me correctly, Columbia was in trouble, and started to initially break up over California.
Ya think?
.
>> “ The cause of the accident was traced to a hole in one of the shuttle’s wings, which was hit by a piece of falling foam insulation during launch 16 days earlier.” <<
.
Caused by “environmentalism” replacing engineering!
The original foam that had been designed for the launch vehicles required the use of fluoro-carbons, which were banned due to ‘Chicken Little’ environmentalism.
.
I remember that day. Was in the barbershop getting a haircut with my son. They had the re entry on either the TV or radio.
They mentioned they hadn’t heard from the spacecraft for more than what I thought was normal; and I was pretty sure something pretty bad had happened.