[leadpenny]

Heads up on the Left Coast.

[leadpenny]

Actually, I believe the Shuttle will cross the California coast a little before 6 Pacific.

[SamAdams76]

As I write this, the Shuttle should be re-entering the atmosphere of the planet "Earth."

[winodog]

I am up and in vegas. Sounds like I better put some shorts and a t-shirt on and go outside to watch.

[ken in texas]

Supposed to be passing by around 8:03 here in Dallas.

Getting ready to check it out.

[Riley]

Dang. Found this article at 6:03!

[RaceBannon]

My God, what an ill-timed post! I know you didnt know, it is just such a sad thing to see this thread started...and then....(Please dont take offense, just a bad co-incidence!)

[SamAdams76]

Well it's been a crazy couple of hours. I had just taken a shower this morning and was all set to leave the house for errands this morning when I saw your thread about the Space Shuttle landing at 9:16 in Florida. I had a weird feeling and decided that this was something I ought to watch. Not that I thought anything bad might happen but I just got the impulse to turn on the TV and watch. This was about 8:40 and I figured since I was in no particular rush, I'd turn on the NASA station and see the landing. I very rarely bother watching Space Shuttle landings and liftoffs and wouldn't have done so this morning if not for your post.

So I went downstairs to watch it as it was being shown on the public access channel on my cable system. Everything looked normal at Mission Control and the shuttle was being tracked across the Pacific, over California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and then Texas. About 9AM, the tracking map that showed at Mission Control appeared to have been frozen and the forward progress of the shuttle stopped being shown.

At the time, I thought nothing of it, having rarely seen a landing televised. I expected the cameras to shift to Florida to show the landing itself. But as the minutes ticked on past 9AM, something just didn't seem right. Yet there was no visible alarm being shown at NASA Mission Control so I figured things were under control. About 9:05, I noticed that NASA was attempting to contact the shuttle through UHF. Again, I thought nothing of it, knowing that it is common for re-entering spacecraft to temporarily lose communications.

Suddenly I noticed that it was 9:11, only five minutes before the scheduled landing and the cameras still showed the workers at Mission control somberly monitoring their instruments and attempting to contact the spacecraft. Those people there are cool as cucumbers, I had no idea whatsoever that this was anything but a routine event, but it just didn't feel right that here it was, a few minutes before landing and no communication was yet established.

At that time, I thought of running to the computer to post here my concerns. But I figured I would just look like a fool. When the time of landing arrived, 9:16, and there was still no signs of communication, I became very puzzled. This was definitely not right, even though the folks at Mission Control didn't seem to be getting excited, it was downright quiet in that room. Out of curiosity I flipped over to FoxNews and saw the NEWS ALERT: NASA LOSES CONTACT WITH SHUTTLE.

At that moment, chills ran down my spine. I just knew that something catastrophic had happened. It was so bizzarre. Realize that I had no intention of watching this landing and in fact, didn't even know of a shuttle landing until seeing this thread. What a very weird coincidence that the one time I sit down to watch a shuttle landing, this happens.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post my thoughts on this very surreal morning. It really brings me back to the morning of January 28, 1986. Even the photos of the Columbia crew look eerily similar to the photos of the 1986 crew from Challenger.

May their souls rest in peace.

[socal_parrot]

Sad bump.

[My Favorite Headache]

This thread needs to be saved as a piece of symbolic history on FR of the last moments of Columbia.

[davidosborne]

Leadpenny,

YOURS is REALLY the original on this tragedy !!

Amazing !!

Link below is credited as the FIRST to report the tragedy...

Shuttle Contact LOST-No Tracking Data During RE-Entry!

[McGruff]

This thread even got the attention of the evil ones.

[The South Park Republican]

This is a very important thread. Very tragic for you Freepers who actually saw this, I am sure, but also an example of what makes Free Republic so cool.

Some of us where "There" and we have a record of it.

[Palladin]

What a chilling and tragic thread! Eyewitnesses to history. What started out as a routine viewing of the shuttle changed in moments to terrible despair.

May all seven aboard rest in peace.

(BTW...this thread is reminiscent of the radio reports on the VonHindenberg disaster, decades ago.)

[ladyinred]

My best friend lives in the Bay Area and she and her hubby went out early to see the shuttle pass over. At 630 she called me and told me to turn on the television. She was so upset after just having seen the shuttle pass over. She is also a former employee of NASA.

[Bubba_Leroy]

"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.


High Flight was composed by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., an American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was born in Shanghai, China in 1922, the son of missionary parents, Reverend and Mrs. John Gillespie Magee; his father was an American and his mother was originally a British citizen.

He came to the U.S. in 1939 and earned a scholarship to Yale, but in September 1940 he enlisted in the RCAF and was graduated as a pilot. He was sent to England for combat duty in July 1941.

In August or September 1941, Pilot Officer Magee composed High Flight and sent a copy to his parents. Several months later, on December 11, 1941 his Spitfire collided with another plane over England and Magee, only 19 years of age, crashed to his death.

His remains are buried in the churchyard cemetery at Scopwick, Lincolnshire.

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/prewwii/jgm.htm

[MattAMiller]

A heartbreaking read. But piece of history as well, I'm marking this one for future retreival

[TEXOKIE]

I try to write to my elderly mother on a frequent basis. In each letter I close with a prayer. I wanted to share today's with you now.

Our Beloved Heavenly Father, Our Lord Christ Jesus,

We come before you now and beseech you to please care for the souls of these precious ones in our space program who gave their lives in the quest for greater knowledge of the Cosmos which you created. Take these precious souls in your arms and place them gently into the highest places in your Mansion that you possibly can. Heal their souls of any wounds which the trauma may have caused them. Comfort their souls as they leave behind their friends and families.

Hold their friends and families close to your heart and give them legions of comfort angels. Help them to find strength in you during this period of intense raw pain. Help their families gracefully adjust to the changes in dynamics which occur when we lose dear ones. Protect these ones who are very much in the public eye. Let them know that we CARE about them. Guide the media personnel in their efforts to gain stories for those of us who do care. Let them be sensitive to the pain of these precious souls who have lost so much while those stories are gathered.

Father, we pray for the people in the space program who were involved in this mission. We ask that you will guide them in finding out the root cause/s so that any future reoccurence may never happen again. We further ask that you will enlighten people who find debris as to the importance of it being turned in to authorities. One just never knows which little bit might spell the key for us to understand the disaster. Please Lord, if there is such a piece or pieces, please let them be found and turned in by unselfish citizens.

Father, we ask for your mercy and care not only for the souls involved in this national tragedy, but for any and all who have given their lives wearing our military uniforms. We have had recent helicopter crashes and other incidents where we have lost soldiers. Father, we include them and their families in our prayers. We continue to pray for all of our military who are actively serving in any capacity, and their families.

Father, guide all of our leaders in their decisions which are needing to be made. Especially give our President grace and wisdom in his decisions to deploy our forces. We pray and trust that whenever he bows his head in prayer, which he has indicated he does do, that he will have an extraordinary ablility to hear Your words and guidance. We support him and lift him up in our prayers and are grateful that you have allowed us to have in office one who does sincerely believe and depend upon the arm of the Lord. We would ask that each and every person in office or who is in a leadership and decision-making capacity also have an extraordinary ability to hear heavenly guidance when they bow their heads in prayer. We are in a very crucial time in many levels and many fronts, Lord, and we have never needed your intercession more. Grant us that intercession, our Father! Grant us the vision as a united people that we need in order to allow your own divine plan for our nation and civilization to be made manifest.

Father, we place all of this upon the altar and we give gratitude and praise to you that you do indeed hear and answer our prayers. We ask that all of our prayers will be adjusted according to thy will, for we do not wish to pray amiss in any way whatsoever. In the name of the Everlasing Word,

Amen

~written by TEXOKIE Feb 1, 2003~

[Chesterbelloc]

Well, last night I went to http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/groundtracs to make sure I had the correct time for it passing over my area. I live high up in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Central California. The kids and I go out there this morning and the big beautiful fireball trailing a plume of smoke goes by amazingly fast right on schedule at around 5:55. I tell the kids in just 20 minutes it'll be on the ground in Florida. Think about going inside and turning on the tv to watch it land, but go back to bed instead. Wake up and turn on the news later - what a horrible sick feeling! God Bless those 7 precious souls...

[LowOiL]

Now people are trying to sell pieces on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3205211710&category=413

[don-o]

Hell of a day.

I spied your post at about 8:55; and being a fan (not fanatic) of space flight since Alan Shepard, I then went to NASA-TV on line. (No cable TV here - I cannot deal with TV)

After five minutes of capcom calls, with no response, and Houston saying that Meritt Island had no track, I knew she was a goner.

AT 9:15, I went to the kitchen and told Mrs. don-o that we had lost the shuttle.

Thanks for taking the time to post the post that I saw.

And fwiw, I always hope and believe for something good to come out of this. On to Mars!!