[AP SCOOP] Space Shuttle Columbia Will Be Visible In San Francisco Area (6AM Pacific)

nasa

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Freeper John Jamieson and others are tracking down shuttle weights...

From the STS-107 Press kit. Here you go:

• Shuttle liftoff weight: 452,842 lbs.
• Orbiter/payload liftoff weight: 263,701 lbs.
• Orbiter/payload landing weight: 232,788 lbs.
• External tank: ET-93A (Super Light Weight)

[HighWheeler]

Mike, I don't think the debris is starting out in the first frame at the nose, there is parallax here in the 3/4 view. The debris may have only gone 1/3 or 1/4 the distance calculated in those frames. A 3D model of the shuttle, and some careful setup may show the actual distance traveled in the frames.

BTW, I saw Dittemore say a couple days ago that the foam is to light and soft to do damage, and he used his fingers to demonstrate. Well, water is vary soft too at that demonstration speed, but it behaves much like concrete when impacted at high speed.

[bvw]

IIRC, the "super light weight tank" listed is a mistake.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...the "super light weight tank" listed is a mistake.

I thought so but I couldn't find anything else that listed the tank specs other than the Press Kit.

[MikeFromBelgium]

You are right. When I made this drawing, I did not took into account the parallax effect. So, indeed, the debris velocity might be much lower. I am not quite sure the frame rate of the camera was 100fps. On other threads I have seen 30fps. This would lead to a much lower relative velocity for the debris. May be somethng like 250mph.

I have seen also a video published by Nasa showing clearly that the debris (several of them) seems to come off the tank right above the shuttle nose. A good explanation I have seen is about the pipes going up there. They seems to heat up because they are used to maintain pressure in the Oxygen tank above. This would explain why pieces of ice come off at this moment in the flight.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Bump for one week ago today. I was lurking at my workplace and found out about the break up as it happened. At first I thought it was a hoax, because no one I spoke to at my workplace heard anything about it.

This morning is crystal clear and bitter cold in northern Indiana. Could see jet contrails on the way into work and was immediately reminded of the shuttle. It must have been an awesome sight and sound down there in Texas a week ago.

Thanks, leadpenny, for the timely post. Will bookmark this thread just as I bookmarked the first thread announcing the 9-11 attacks.

[leadpenny]

It must have been an awesome sight and sound down there in Texas a week ago.

Bump!

[Sara Dorian]

Bump @post #4...

[McGruff]

Well it's just another Saturday. So was last Saturday until this point. Who would have known it would have turned out so tragic. Leadpenny thanks for the thread.

We will go forward, we always have and must in the future for those who gave their lives for us.

[leadpenny]

Bump for post #86

[don-o]

9:00 a. m. bump

[McGruff]

Their mission was almost complete, and we lost them so close
to home. The men and women of the Columbia had journeyed
more than 6 million miles, and were minutes away from arrival
and reunion. The loss was sudden and terrible, and for their
families the grief is heavy.

[leadpenny]

I forget where I heard this or even where I have already posted it, but the closest x42 came to this was his speech at Oklahoma City. In that speech, Bill Clinton used the term "I" ten times and the term "Hillary and I" five times. In President Bush's Houston speech he used "I" once.

[McGruff]

Added a link to the latest mainstream press recognition. Oddly enough from the NY Times.

From Excitement to Horror: Columbia's Last Flight Online

[McGruff]

Welcome to FreeRepublic. Make yourself at home. We are primarily a conservative political discussion site but branch off into other topics like this thread.

When he started it, Leadpenny never knew it would turn into a piece of history.

[WomanofStandard]

Thought you might like to see this history unfolded....very compelling and major media outlets have referred to this thread as well.

[McGruff]

The photo resolution of this foam (I say ice) incident a take off is getting better. See this link.

[leadpenny]

Reference that footage sequence: I saw that played at yesterday's news conference (Gehman Committee). It's the first time it has made any sense to me. It does look like there are two pieces of something but it appears only one of them hit the underside of the leading edge of the left wing.

It also appears the "Question" column is growing faster than the "Answer" column.

Thanks for the link.