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

Nasa TV | 02/01/03 | GRRRR

[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.

[twyn1]

NASA news conference on now....

[Jeff Chandler]

Eternal rest grant unto them, oh Lord, and may Perpetual Light shine upon them. May their souls rest in peace. Amen.

[b4its2late]

Part of it was about Chawla making serious mistakes on her previous mission which caused a lot of work for others to fix. As soon as I heard it I thought that sucked to dig up old dirt like that at a time like this.

Thanks for the info. That explains his bouncing. I'll be shocked if he comes back on Fox again. Especialy after his "bj" comment.

[Smile-n-Win]

The U.S. should discontinue manned space flight ASAP.

A lot of people die in car accidents every year--and each of their deaths is a terrible tragedy for their families--but does that mean we should discontinue driving?

Soldiers die defending our freedom--does that mean we should stop defending our freedom?

Or should we rather try and make cars and defense efforts and spacecraft safer, "expand[ing] man's horizons" ?

President Reagan's speech after the Challenger disaster has been posted many times today, and I quoted my favorite paragraph earlier on this thread:

And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them...

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Dan Rather took a cold call on the air this morning from a guy who said he was from Texas and said he found "Baba Guis" (?)teeth and that Dan Rather was stupid.

Dan just stared blankly and Dan's co-host had to inform Dan that it was a crank call.

The funny part is that I told my wife this was going to happen right before it did.

Some kind of Howard Stern reference, right?

[Robert A Cook PE]

Also:

Look again at the "V" made by this return going AWAY from the radar itself. A missile flight would show the exact opposite (the "V" going forward with the flight, ending with a faint image at the missile itself - even assuming this kind of weather radar could pick up a single missile anyway.

Now, imagine a large object mometarily in the radar path relatively close to the radar. (Any interference will do, it could even be a debris finally falling low enough to get picked up.) The radar "shadow" WOULD point away from the radar itself, and would expand geometrically exactly as you see.

Nope, this is a single spurious radar reflection, NOT a missile.

By the time the single radar image was seen, you can see the main debris/ion field TO THE EAST-SOUTHEAST of Dallas. the shuttle has already broken by this time.

[GirlShortstop]

I'm glad you missed it. See post 1865. FReegards

[Kip Lange]

I believe the shuttle mission also involved deploying part of a chain of necklace satellites for military purposes. I also recall this is not something that was *hidden*, so back off, tinfoil-hatters.

[happygrl]

Thanks DoughtyOne for the frequent posting of the pic of these brave astronauts.

It helps us keep our focus on the loss here and not the trivia.

[txradioguy]

I bet Howard is getting his skinny @ss reamed by Mel Karmazian right now for one of his morning show henchmen prack calling Dan Rather as this was breaking this morning. He ended the call by yelling "Dan Rather Is An Idiot". While truthful totally uncalled for today.

[NautiNurse]

Sorry for the delay in responding. I am in D.C. at CPAC. I learned of the disaster while in the conference room awaiting Alan Keyes (who cancelled due to illness).

I had the privelege of watching this last Columbia launch--as I do follow every launch. May God bless their souls and their families.

[cajungirl]

I heard himm say that about the lady and was surprised he said it but it is public knowledge and was in her bio, her feelings about it. What was the bj comment???

[CindyDawg]

It probably was an accident but for once I'm not concerned about our government's ability to instantly rule out terrorism because Israel seems to have a history of investigating first and concluding 2nd. If something like this happened I feel we will hear about it soon. Too many eyes in the sky today

On a sadder note: My husband and I went out for breakfast awhile ago. I was reading in the morning paper about how the 80 experiments done had been successful and that extra security was in place but NASA was optimistic and had never had a problem with landings and didn't anticipate any problems this time either. My prayers are with their families. CD

[Petronski]

I think his fans freelance those crank calls. I doubt he coordinates them.

[GirlShortstop]

Some kind of Howard Stern reference, right?

Second incident on CBS, yes.   I find their antics absolutely disgusting and would revel in their receiving the scorn of fellow hurt Americans.

[virgil]

I seem to remember from the Challenger explosion they said that the odds ran for mishap for spaceflight was 1 in 27. I don't know where these new numbers are coming from.

[The South Park Republican]

Exactly...

Based on what they are really doing (Straping a rocket to their asses and flying into space) and how many times they have done it, our loses have been tiny.

Of course, our histerical public doesn't take this into account.

Personally, I would leave ALL the decisions up to those who actually go up into space.

I'm serious when I say I would give my left arm for a trip on the space shuttle. And I would GLADLY do up tommorrow. Heck...RIGHT NOW!

[Timesink]

The vast majority of my friends are "Union Democrats". Democrats for generations. They would turn on these FOOLS and join us in a HEARTBEAT over stuff like this.

That's exactly what happened with the genetic RATS that make up 3/4 of the population of West Virginia in the 2000 election. They got utterly sick of the actions of the RATS, and switched to Bush. Only 5 EVs, but that was enough to put Bush into office.

[Darnright]

"The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave."

God bless President Reagan. He gave the most fitting tribute to Challenger those years ago. His words ring true on this sad day.

[Humidston]

I'm North of Houston, and signed up for email emergency weather alerts. This morning I received the following from them:

Texas residents who come in contact with any debris from the explosion of
shuttle Comlumbia should immediately contact local authorities.

Residents warned not to pick up any fallen debris.
Debris is potentially dangerous.

THE EMERGENCY EMAIL & WIRELESS NETWORK
http://www.emergencyemail.org/