[wrcfanintx]

A little info and a couple of points from a newcomer:

I found this forum by reading James Taranto's Best of the Web. Anyway, I live in the DFW area, and was totally unaware that the shuttle was coming down Saturday, until a friend that lives in Knoxville, TN called with the bad news. Our next door neighbors, who have three small kids, were out watching with binoculars, and saw the breakup, not realizing until later what they had seen. My older brother lives in Dallas, and watched it as well. From seeing the multiple trails in the sky, and the noise, he knew immediately that something was wrong.

A couple of points:

1) Human remains surviving reentry - if the astronauts had remained in a relatively intact crew cabin throughout reentry, remains could have survived with burns similar to those sustained in a house or car fire (IMHO).

2) Reentry path - WFFA-TV here in Dallas had two news photographers shooting video of the descent. One of them, Timb Hamilton, is an amatuer astronomer and shuttle buff, and was shooting from his backyard. He pointed out in an interview on WFAA that it's been unusual lately for shuttles to reenter over DFW, as missions to the Intl Space Station normally pass over Cancun and Cozumel, Mexico, rather than DFW.

3) People celebrating in the Middle East - According to Saturday's and Sunday's special editions of BOTW, under the heading "Palestinians Whoop It Up?", some Iraqis, Palestinians and Jordanians were quoted as being pleased about the Columbia breakup. From The Jerusalem Post: "They were sent to space to spy on the Arabs and Muslims," Ramallah schoolteacher Rudainah Salman tells the paper. "I have no sympathy for the astronauts because they were doing something bad to us. Allah punished them because of their bad intentions. I hate the Americans and the Israelis because of what they are doing to our people."

How some things never change.

[McGruff]

Thanks for your personal observations and welcome to Free Republic.

We are normally a conservative political news and commentary site, but our founder Jim Robinson allows us the freedom to off topic like this.

This thread started out as a heads up to others that the shuttle would be visible to those who were interested. No one knew it would turn out this way.

[ken in texas]

Thanks for the info, and welcome to FR.

[44magnum]

The Iraqis are just jealous. The closest they will ever get to space travel is when their vaporized ashes reach the stratosphere riding the top of a mushroom cloud.

[Jael]

Just wanted to say welcome.

[DoughtyOne]

Along the same lines, I've been amazed that no terrorist state claimed responsibility. Hezballah, al Qaeda, the Talliban, Saddam Hussein, you name it, you'd think one of them would have found this an impossible situation not to claim credit for.