Posted on 02/03/2003 7:59:28 PM PST by _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.
Don't mean to be picky but... Don'tcha mean west, instead of east?
Yep! Stuff was all over the Sacramento T.V. on Saturday about people seeing irregular sights and sounds as they watched "flares" falling away from the shuttle.
However, I'd be willing to bet a lot that it was traveling at such high velocity that it followed the trajectory beyond at least NV, UT & NM! Maybe even all the way to TX!!!
Exactly how many times can hell freeze over?
You mean this time, or for all of them? I've heard astronauts say it's like sitting on top of a controlled bomb. They ALL know the risks.
I am also dissatisfied that NASA did not disclose the damage to the wing if it knew, prior to reentry
It was in the papers right after the launch and they did discuss it with the crew, from what they said today.
Dang ... I *just* saw on it Fox here locally again too - the entire run of the full motion-picture video shot in Nevada ...
Please forgive my geographic dyslexia ...
One would be forced to presume you refer only to Columbia.
Live Thread: NASA PRESS CONFERENCE |
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Posted by _Jim to Howlin On News/Activism 02/03/2003 5:48 PM EST #374 of 496 Dammit - I saw it. I took a scrren capture too. You want me to post that? Geez ... Post Reply | Private Reply | To 373 | View Replies |
As I say, I am just venting. I await more facts. But pendign that, I have no intention to give NASA a pass.
Ha ha ha ha ...
I have found women to be, at times, and sometimes concurrently, any or all of at least the following: highly irrational, intensely critical, abjectly negative, highly irritatable, intensely conniving, remarkably unconcerned and, last but not least, bitchy for absolutely no reason wahtsoever ...
Gentleman - do any of you concur?
So what are you saying about yourself. If I recall correctly, you're the one who left the thread in a snit this afternoon.
Don't say you didn't. I have the post right here.
So, what "issues" do you have?
Recovered from 'your stew'?
Are you 'ready to talk'?
The events under consideration shall not be concluded until the gravitationally challenged member of the feminine gender begins to vocalize!!!
And you, Sir, had better not "stop short!"
I drove 1,000 miles, one way, twice, over Christmas to avoid planes and carry what I darn well wanted too ...
And for my trouble I got to see sites that I hadn't seen in years, drove right straight up through the heartland of America, into and through the grain basket of the world.
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