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Shuttle Contact LOST-No Tracking Data During RE-Entry!
Nasa TV | 02/01/03 | GRRRR

Posted on 02/01/2003 6:16:05 AM PST by GRRRRR

Shuttle has NOT been heard from or seen on tracking radar since 0800Hrs CDT. No contact at Merrit Island tracking station, no voice comm...DEVELOPING.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Florida; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: astronauts; columbia; columbiatragedy; disaster; du; feb12003; ilanramon; india; israel; nasa; ramon; revoltingevilduers; shuttle; space; spaceshuttle; sts107; unitedstates
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To: bonesmccoy
Look at #1383. A few observations...

Note the tight debris field at the beginning of the loop indicating the high rate of speed. If there are more intact, heavier remains, they will be found in LA. As the loop progresses, the lighter material sinks into the lower atmosphere (prob < 60K ft) and the upper air wind starts to spread it perpendicular to the original path. Forecast winds at 53,000 ft over Shreveport are 280 deg at 53 kts (pretty light for this time of year). The debris spread matches that expectation.

1,461 posted on 02/01/2003 8:48:54 AM PST by IFly4Him
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To: All
If the shuttle re-entered sideways, it was more than likely spinning out of control before it re-entered. <<<<<<<< There was an eye-witness report of a streak that was not going straight (but rather a spiral) The report was by a person that had seen previous Shuttle re-entries...

In thinking further about this report... I would say that the eye-witness must have been viewing a piece (or pieces) that had already separated and was turning or tumbling.

1,462 posted on 02/01/2003 8:49:07 AM PST by OReilly
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To: conservativemusician
My God.........I can barely tpye
1,463 posted on 02/01/2003 8:49:27 AM PST by conservativemusician
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To: Trust but Verify; Catspaw

Family there to see Horlick graduate soarBy David Steinkraus, Jan. 17, 2003

Space shuttle launches are impressive on television, but there's nothing like being there, said Dan Salton.

He watched his sister, Horlick High School graduate Laurel Blair Salton Clark, blast off on space shuttle Columbia on Thursday morning.

Salton, who grew up in Racine and lives with his family on Milwaukee's south side, was joined by most of Clark's family at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Her mother, stepfather and siblings were there. Only her father, Bob, couldn't make it, Salton said.

"The family viewing area ... was at a spot about 3 1/2 miles from the launch site," he said.

"You don't actually hear it and feel it for about ... I don't know, we were thinking maybe 20 to 30 seconds. And then it starts rumbling and it hits you a little bit, but then it really hits, and it just builds and grows and grows. When that thing gets up about a mile, a half-mile, up in the sky it's burning like a blowtorch."

Salton was even closer to the space shuttle before the launch. One NASA tradition is a launch pad tour for spouses, Salton said, but Clark's husband also works for NASA. She picked Dan.

They walked around the base of the shuttle as it sat on the launch pad on Tuesday.

"We looked at the bolts," he said. "There's these huge, probably 10-inch-in-diameter, bolts. And there's four of them per SRB (solid rocket booster). So there's eight total, and those are all that hold the shuttle to the ground."

They went up the tower that the astronauts ascended on Thursday morning. They weren't permitted in the clean room where the shuttle's hatch is, but they could move around elsewhere.

"I got to go inside (the service spaces) and actually close enough so that I could have touched the shuttle if they'd let me. They said, 'Don't. Don't touch it, but there it is' -- close enough to read the serial numbers on the individual tiles that are on the shuttle." Those are the ceramic tiles that sheathe the spaceship.

On Tuesday night there was a barbecue, Salton said, where all the astronauts' families had a chance to meet all the other astronauts' families, including the family of Ilan Ramon, Israel's first shuttle astronaut.

And on Wednesday night there was a reception for the astronauts' guests. Clark's included her siblings, parents and cousins.

"She had about 236 guests," Salton said. Clark couldn't attend, however.

"She was basically in quarantine since last Thursday," Salton said, a hardship for her 6-year-old son. People who wanted to have contact with the astronauts had to pass a physical exam -- which Salton did before his launch pad tour -- and wear a badge signifying that they had been cleared by a doctor, he said.

Columbia is scheduled to land on Feb. 1. Salton said he would like to be on hand for the landing, but may not be able to make it. Other members of Clark's family, he said, are hoping to watch their explorer return to Earth.


1,464 posted on 02/01/2003 8:49:43 AM PST by LouD
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To: alancarp
I heard that the craft yawed at a bad time. At that critical altitude, even a small thing gone wrong is disasterous.
1,465 posted on 02/01/2003 8:49:52 AM PST by Republic of Texas
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To: bonesmccoy
This is probably a dumb question--but is there an equivalent of a "black box" on the Columbia that could yield information?
1,466 posted on 02/01/2003 8:50:08 AM PST by Palladin (Proud to be a FReeper!)
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To: Keith in Iowa; July 4th
Thanks for that information. I didn't know that.
1,467 posted on 02/01/2003 8:50:28 AM PST by kcvl
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To: The South Park Republican
I've defended here a number of times (Under another user name). ?????
1,468 posted on 02/01/2003 8:50:28 AM PST by Inspectorette
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To: All
Latest updates

1630 GMT (11:30 a.m. EST)

The NASA news conference has been delayed until later today. A new time has not been announced.

1620 GMT (11:20 a.m. EST)

We are getting reports from Central California from photographers are telling us that they saw a couple small objects flying free of the shuttle's streak across the sky.

1,469 posted on 02/01/2003 8:50:33 AM PST by McGruff (It's a sad day.)
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To: Petronski
Those ghouls on that other board live by the maxim that the personal is political. They have no concept of a common humanity transcending political divisions. Their natural impulse is not to see this as a human tragedy but solely as a political event. Disgusting.
1,470 posted on 02/01/2003 8:50:40 AM PST by Loyalist
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To: IFly4Him
Just got off the phone with a friend. Huge chunk of one of the wings is in Fredonia Bank parking lot in Nacogdoches. Debris is all over Nac.
1,471 posted on 02/01/2003 8:50:54 AM PST by Aggie Mama
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To: Terriergal
"You are less cynical than I then... when you consider the Israeli involvement in this mission..."

Well, I am certain they are celebrating this cruel twist of fate, much as they celebrated the attacks on 9/11, but given the fact that there are a lot of variables inherent in space travel that make it dangerous without any extenuating circumstances, the level of technology that it would take to engineer an attack on the space shuttle I do believe would be out of their reach, even as tenacious as they are.

1,472 posted on 02/01/2003 8:50:56 AM PST by sweetliberty (Having the right to do a thing is not at all the same thing as being right in doing it)
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To: Teacher317
He's a hero just for destroying that plant.
1,473 posted on 02/01/2003 8:51:00 AM PST by Bogey78O (It's not a Zero it's an "O")
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To: Bilbo
I, and I'm sure other late-rising West Coasters, missed the Rather thing. Care to elaborate?
1,474 posted on 02/01/2003 8:51:08 AM PST by JennysCool
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To: justshe
I've been reflecting on Reagan's speech back when we lost the Challenger. I hopped online to see if I could find a version of it on conservative site somewhere. I found it comforting then, I'm sure it would help now. http://www.townhall.com/hall_of_fame/reagan/speech/challeng.html
1,475 posted on 02/01/2003 8:51:23 AM PST by neefer
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To: Arkinsaw; Admin Moderator
I fail to understand why we want to see animals on a thread about lost heroes. I would prefer that the links be allowed on any OTHER thread than this one.

Seconded. Let toxic waste go on one new, clearly-labeled thread, where the rest of us can avoid it.

1,476 posted on 02/01/2003 8:51:25 AM PST by dighton
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To: The South Park Republican
YOU'RE the one sending her vulgar replies...how does that constitute "leaving her alone?"
1,477 posted on 02/01/2003 8:51:39 AM PST by Lurking2Long
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To: All
Columbia Discussion thread
1,478 posted on 02/01/2003 8:51:45 AM PST by Admin Moderator
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To: Palladin
No Cockpit Voice Recorders exist. Even if they did, the ability to recover data from them would be extremely difficult (debris will be quite small).
1,479 posted on 02/01/2003 8:51:45 AM PST by bonesmccoy (Defeat the terrorists... Vaccinate!)
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To: txdoda
CNN is reporting it exploded over Palestine, Texas Ok, sounds like some PLO sympathetic writer just wrote that.>>>>>>>> I'm near Palestine, TX........and we did hear it.....

Yes, and I heard it 65 miles away...my brother heard it in Nacogdoches...my friend heard it in Fairfield....People ALL over central texas heard it but CNN choose Palestine to write about. Doesn't that suggest suggest something to you?

1,480 posted on 02/01/2003 8:51:52 AM PST by Nubbin
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