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.

[George W. Bush]

GET BACK ON THE HORSE!

Bump to that. No delay in our shuttle launch schedule. Ask for volunteers among the astronauts. We'll get them. The original estimate was that we'd lose 1 shuttle every 75 flights. Well, maybe it's actually 1 shuttle every 58 flights. Our astronauts have always known this and they are willing to pay the price if they have to. And that is not taking their lives lightly. It's recognizing that space exploration is important and that it is worth a few lives if that is what it takes.

Our astronauts are willing to go. Exploration isn't for the timid. New frontiers are not for the timid.

Let's build another shuttle to replace Columbia and start designing a replacement fleet. I hope we don't have to hear a lot of complaining over the cost. We're spending almost as much for a B2 bomber as we spend on a space shuttle these days.

"If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."
- Gus Grissom, Commander, Apollo 1, speaking a few weeks before his death in the Apollo 1 fire

[3catsanadog]

I just got home from work. I watched what I could till I had to leave at 1:00 for a meeting and then my regular 3-11:30 shift.

Terrible tragedy - I hope those poor souls didn't suffer. My prayers to the families.

I had gone to sleep last night with Fox News on and when I woke up (about 10:00 am) they were showing the flaming shuttle streaking across the sky; course, I had no idea what had happened and my first thoughts were, oh my God, we're being bombed.

[Zebra]

Probably so. I think that we have short changed the manned space program for some time. If we are truly committed to this endeavor--and I for one think we whould be--it is essential that we move every decade or so to consideration of a new design, with the expectation that the next generation of reusable orbiters will birth every 20 years.

That said, to support the massive cost associated with design and manufacture of new generation STS vehicles, we need to clearly articulate the civilian and military objectives and allocate the costs accordingly. The military and commerical sectors need to share the costs ratably.

While I am in 100% behind this program, I insist on accountability in all phases.

[joanie-f]

Another poster opined that we need the frogs in this war like we need an accordian on a deer hunt.

Hey! Accordians may not serve as effective weapons, but they’re nice around a fire inside a hunting cabin (running a close second to harmonicas and guitars).

(Actually, although I am a music teacher, I have an intense dislike of accordions … but I’m in an argumentative mood tonight, so am defending them anyway …. :)

[joanie-f]

I live just and hop/skip/jump from Three Mile Island. At the time of the 'event,' my daughter (who was then a toddler) and I were sitting in the tree house in our backyard having milk and sandwiches, when a neighbor came out and calmly informed us of what had occurred. No hippies were around, taking ghoulish pleasure in the fact that a nuclear meltdown might have occurred. So my memory of that day is much more calm and unmemorable than yours. But that moron appears to have done you a favor in that he steered you to the right. (Did you consider running down to DC last weekend during the anti-war demonstration, seeking him out, and shaking his hand?)

Regarding the parentheses thing ....

In fourteen years, my dog has never jumped up onto the furniture when I am at home. But occasionally, when I arrive home, I will peek through the glass panel in the front door, and there she will be, lying on her back on the couch, feet up in the air. As soon as I put the key in the lock, she scrambles down and meets me at the door with a 'Who, me?' look in her eye.

I guess that's kinda how I am with you and parentheses. When I am writing specifically to you, I avoid them scrupulously (well, semi-scrupulously) <-- as you can see. Yet, when I think you are not looking, I use them with abandon.

Why do I feel like a two-year-old with her hand caught in the cookie jar?

[I got the rope]

So we should lay the blame on the taxpayer right? If there were safety concerns, then they should have been addressed by the people who were in charge and had the moral authority to make a decision. If they were negligent, then they should be fired.

[Fred Mertz]

I suspect security reasons which they won't publicize. There have been strange searches in the Catoctin Mountains, near Camp David, the past week or two.

That is strange, the president being driven back from Camp David. I doubt that weather was the main factor.

[SouthParkRepublican]

Remove

[okie01]

"I suspect security reasons which they won't publicize. There have been strange searches in the Catoctin Mountains, near Camp David, the past week or two."

Undisclosed sightings of Middle Eastern-appearing men with shoulder mounted SAMs...???

The Fishing Creek Reservoir site, though, is twenty miles south of Camp David and well away from the flight path back to D.C.

[berkeleybeej]

"Enterprise was not a "space craft" but more of a full scale mock up used for testing purposes in the atmosphere. It was released from a mother plane, then glided to landing."

I remember watching this on TV...it was awesome to see the shuttle & mother ship (747? 707?) in the air...and then the shuttle being released.

[PApatriots]

Happy Birthday, Big Patriot Sister!

[Captain Beyond]

It should have it's own thread but I think it is pretty informative how two sets of groups that differ in political persuasion are responding to this tragedy. On the FR thread the majority of the people are distraught by this horrible accident. If one reads the FreeRepublic thread and then removes the Howling\TSPR flame war and a few other replies the thread mainly consists of people reporting the latest information, people that are grief stricken, people that are encouraging others, people requesting prayer for the families of the astronauts and the nation as a whole, and people trying to sort out what happen and how.

On the DU thread it is viewed as a political event with the majority of the replies bashing Bush and wondering how much mileage he will get out of it politically. You have people blaming Bush for the accident, people bemoaning the fact that Clinton never got the break Bush got by having a tragedy on his watch(That there are people who would want this or 911 to happen for a better Clinton approval rating is beyond sickening and disgusting), people using the event to protest the coming war with Iraq, people espousing wild conspiracy theories involving Bush, people that are just mainly mean spirited, and a couple of people distraught by the tragedy.

I wish there was someway to spit the screen and run the FR and DU threads side by side and do a comparison as the event unfolded. It would be clearly evident that the liberals are insane. Jim Rob should print out both and send them a media outlets so the world could see the difference. I would love to see the mainstream liberal media trying to defend what is being said on DU. On one hand the conservative forum is mourning and reporting on the event while on the other the liberal forum it is being politicized to advance their cause while demeaning the death of fellow citizens.

[ChuxsterS]

The same thought has struck me every time I've sampled the buzz at DU. Here, I read many posts exhibiting beautiful patriotism, hope, faith... over there I read many posts dripping with paranoia, vitriol, hatred and fear. There's a thread at DU right now where they're challinging people to present proof that the shuttle disaster really was an accident (and not some diabolical plot cooked up by Andrew Card and Bush).

Free Republic thrives on love and hope, DU feeds on hate and loathing. Modern "liberalism" is a species of mental illness.

[Gracey]

THANK YOU so very much for the wonderful link. I've passed it around to my NASA peers.

[sweetliberty]

It is an interesting idea but unfortunately would never see the light of day in any of the mainstream press. The liberals have become so whacked out as to believe they're actually mainstream. Sad. But I do agree that an event like this really separates the sheep from the goats in a manner of speaking. I didn't look at much over there. I couldn't bear it today, but I did see that there were a couple of voices of reason and compassion in an otherwise toxic cesspool. I also saw here a few that I wished would have spent their day doing something else. I think what it comes down to really is a relationship with the truth. I think that here, for the most part, we seek truth and authenticity in all things and while we get very caught up at times in our opinions and emotions, most of us are open to the possibility of being wrong about some issues. With few exceptions we freely admit that we don't have all the answers, but most of us have faith in the One who does, and even those who do not profess a religious faith, show respect to those who do; at least that has been my experience.

Over there it is very different. Challenge is not tolerated and I see little evidence that there is any room for differing opinions even within their own ranks. It seems they exist not to furthur their own understanding and knowledge, but to spit and fume and wax hysterical in their own hate to the point that they feed on it and it poisons everything and everyone within range that interacts with them. I am not suggesting that there are no reasonable and truth-seeking people over there, but I don't believe they last very long because they would never find what they were looking for in such a restrictive and controlled environment. Neither am I suggesting that FR is for everyone, although I think that people of widely varying opinions can feel welcome here as long as they behave reasonably and treat others with respect.

I would like to think that that other site is just a niche element of radical fringe, but I fear that more and more it is becoming the face of the enemy within (within the country I mean; not FR). A lot of them lurk here, and we have many posters who either post on both forums or who have been banned there and found that they were welcomed here and that maybe their core beliefs were not so far from us after all.

[Captain Beyond]

I hear you brother.

[Riley]

On one hand the conservative forum is mourning and reporting on the event while on the other the liberal forum it is being politicized to advance their cause while demeaning the death of fellow citizens.

Some good observations. I was monitoring them for the same reason- and seeing the same thing. The contrast was stunning.

[Captain Beyond]

It blew me away. There was such a vast gulf of difference. It was a complete hive mindset fueled by hate at DU. It is one thing to have a political slant on a tragedy such as this but to be wallowing in a pit of nothing but hate filled propaganda is too extreme. How these people go about their lives each day and stay sane is impossible to grasp.

[fatima]

Captain Beyond,Good read,fatima

[fatima]

ChuxsterS,I have never read DU,just FR,much love,fatima