Posted on 02/18/2003 7:23:50 PM PST by TLBSHOW
I did not see the flames etc. that you speak of, but I feel like I should say something about the above comment.
The shuttle did not break up over California. It did lose some tiles, nobody is sure how many, but video evidence that has not been released, indicates loss of at least one or two.
That evidence is some pics taken by a astronomer and were taken near the western border.
Most speculate the craft was already over Nevada at the time.
The real solid evidence of problems occurring over California comes from sensor readings of temp increases in the elevons and skin. This was the first indication of trouble and was known from day one.
As to the break up, the shuttle shed more parts over AZ and then more over west Texas and then broke up as it passed Dallas/FW.
From the video evidence location, one would surmise that if any of that made it to the ground, it would be in Nevada.
From the time of the first NASA announcements, we knew of the problem beginning over California.
I too left a sentence vague when I said the words western border, I should have said western border of Nevada. The location where the astronomer shot his pics.
The tiles are important to find, if they exist and did not completely burn up. They have a specific shape and a serial #.
This would verify the location of the initial damage. I think death valley would be one place they might be. But it is pretty unlikely.
I am thinking of getting the SUV loaded.
Yeah if they can pin point which tiles then they can rule out the foam or not. I sure they have a good idea were the tiles are positioned and what area the foam struck. Are they still going to do the foam\tile testing?
I know one thing I would definitely study the tiles that survived the crash. I would go back and look at the batch numbers for the good tiles Vs. the damaged tiles and see if anything special occurred during the processing that gave the surviving good tiles more strength. Then I would study the bonding and strategic placement of tiles to look for better arrangements.
I do not relished the NASA people's job right now. They have to analyze and figure out what caused the accident and then figure out away to prevent it. If they go with new stuff there will be the nightmare of retesting and recertifying of raw materials and processes and not to mention the amount of quantifying quality for the new product. That is one huge load to be carrying.
Yeah, It is clear to me that foam hit did the deed.
I fought it at first and now understand the physics and the energy that foam carried when it struck the wing underside between the leading edge and the gear door.
I believe it punched a depression in the tiles and damaged the honeycomb panel underneath.
The eventual burn out damaged the RCC supports and glove support as well as the wiring.
As the structure failed the problem got worse and led to loss of control and the shuttle.
Tired.......
Of all the shuttle parts, loose tiles are the least likely to burn up, first because they are designed not to burn up, and second, because their low mass and high cross section would slow them down quickly. They are not going to be many miles from where they dislodged.
I don't think they'll be stupid enough to let another one like him on board.
You received a number of other supporting replies to other ralated posts you and others made.
Then, five hours later, 10:30 est, in that thread HOWLIN came on and started raising a ruckus about your observations of the reports. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..", to quote her, she was upset at what she called uniinformed specualtion, that ran counter to what she understood the NASA statements to suggest. You responded, with cites, she with short barbs.
At 11:36 pm est, HOWLIN posts "It broke up over Texas, that's how. And you said California. And you're wrong. Again."
FRED MERTZ joins you countering HOWLIN. CMSGOP joins Howlin, and posts "Im sure he [the Cal Tech Astronomer who reported seeing something] is a great guy,but he might not know dick about vehicles on re-entry....." -- A fair enough claim, except that the "might not know dick" takes it over the top, eh?
TOMSERVO seems to offer a well-done post to Howlin. Then at 1:45 AM est you bring up teh Don Nelson letter, warning the Bush Admisitration about the overly high risk of another major shuttle disaster.
That brings on a bunch of "active discussion" not directly related to the original observation of where the shuttle broke up. Not pretty, not even strong arguments against your points -- just emotion and chearleading.
Bump for some good info.
Anybody who can make me laugh gets a "well-done". It was a funny remark.
As for this statement of his:
and a freeper saw it on fire over Las Vegas
That's just an absolute lie.....and even the Freeper who posted it came on the thread and said he did NOT say it was on fire, but Todd kept repeating and spamming that particular lie.
Regardless of WHERE is began to lose parts, it did NOT BREAK UP, BURN UP, and EXPLODE over California, which is what Todd said from the beginning. Even this article said that the pieces that came off over California were so small they burned up in the atmosphere. That's why NO parts have been found anywhere except Texas.
We never said nothing was wrong with the shuttle; we simply tried to correct the bogus reports Todd was posting, up to and including misconstruing words of a Freeper to try to make HIS own vacuous posts true.
In case you haven't noticed, Todd WILL change his posts to suit the outcome. It's a "gift" he has, in case you didn't know.
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