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.

[snopercod]

The Columbia is not set up to reach the ISS - mainly because it is too heavy. The other three orbiters are the ISS ferry-ships.

But no shuttles will launch again until this mishap is understood. If history is any guide, it will be years before we launch again, if ever.

This was one of the reasons I left KSC 3 years ago. They couldn't pay me enough to have to go through this again.

[Right Wing Professor]

But then again, how could such an event take place??? The ship was getting ready to land. No engines or fuel on board.

1/2 mv^2. Take v=18,000 m.p.h., square it, multiply by the mass, and half it. That's a heck of a lot of kinetic energy. Don't need combustibles.

What a desperately sad event. May they rest in peace

[bonesmccoy]

Good point... but multiple pieces would also create a deafening sound as it creates various sonic booms.

[putupon]

I don't want to have to wake up to this shit.

I am dreading the Mrs. finding out when she gets up.

[lqcincinnatus]

PALESTINE, TEXAS (Anderson County). Palestine, the county seat of Anderson County, is at the intersection of U.S. highways 79 and 287, at the center of the county, some 108 miles southeast of Dallas and 150 miles north of Houston. It was the early home of Daniel Parkerqv and was named after the Parkers' former home of Palestine, Illinois. It was also the home of John H. Reagan and Governor Thomas M. Campbell.qv When the Texas legislature established Anderson County in 1846, no community existed at the stipulated center of the county, so Palestine was established. A post office opened at the site the next year, and a contract was drawn up for the construction of the first courthouse, which was built on the crest of a low hill. According to a census taken in 1848 by Susan Scott Mallard, wife of Judge John B. Mallard,qv Palestine at that time had 179 white residents and thirty-one black. The Mallard home was the oldest still standing in Palestine in 1990. In 1856 a brick courthouse was built, and a few years later four acres was donated for the establishment of the Palestine Female Institute. Soon, small business concerns were clustered around the square; in 1866 twelve dry-goods businesses were in operation. Commerce was served by paddle-wheel steamers that during periods of high water plied the Trinity River to Magnolia, the port for Palestine. Arrival of the International-Great Northern Railroad in 1872 led to the demise of local river shipping, as the railroad opened year-round travel to the east, to Houston, and to Laredo. The road also changed the face of the town, since the line bypassed the courthouse hill and built its shops, switching yards, and offices on level ground nearly a mile to the west. A horse-drawn streetcar line was built to connect the courthouse and railroad station, but that proved to be uneconomical, and the single car was sold to the budding city of Dallas. By 1896 a new depot had been constructed. Large quantities of cotton, lumber, cottonseed oil, and fruit were shipped from Palestine. During the 1880s and 1890s stores, saloons, and lodging houses rapidly formed a new business district by the tracks. This resulted in two business districts, Old Town and New Town, a designation still used in 1990, though the two sections had long before grown together. By the 1890s Palestine had a population estimated at 6,000, several schools, a number of mills and gins, an opera house, a waterworks, a fire department, two private banks, and several churches, including two reserved for African Americans.qv In 1914 the county's fifth courthouse (still standing in 1990) was completed. Palestine then had a population estimated at 11,000, three daily and five weekly newspapers, saw and grist mills, railroad shops, cotton gins, a cotton compress, a foundry and machine shop, a brick factory, a saltworks, and a creamery. The discovery of oil in 1928 at Boggy Creek, east of Palestine, diversified the town's economy and carried Palestine through the Great Depression.qv Several producing fields were later found in Anderson County, and Palestine became a center for oil-well servicing and supplies. In the 1930s Palestine had 350 rated businesses, and by the 1950s its population had reached an estimated 13,000. In 1952 the Missouri Pacific line acquired ownership of the International-Great Northern and in 1956 constructed an office building in Palestine. The railroad made a contract with the city to base a certain number of railroad employees in Palestine. When the Missouri Pacific sold its lines to the Union Pacific in 1982, many railroad jobs in Palestine ended, though a few railroad employees remained there. The Palestine Carnegie Library was 100 years old in 1982. In 1990 the town had a population of 18,042 and 400 rated businesses, including oil and gas producers, well servicers, a beef-packing plant, various small businesses, and the railroad. Four state prisons in the county also provided local jobs. Land use in the county centered on beef and pine timber. Palestine has a council-manager government. It is the site of the National Scientific Balloon Flight Facility, an operation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Each spring the city is host to several thousand who visit the annual Texas Dogwood Trails. Palestine is a terminus of the Texas State Railroad,qv now a state park, which operates steam excursion trains between Palestine and Rusk. Another tourist attraction by the 1990s was Eilenberger's Bakery, established in 1898, which ships cakes throughout the world. City parks include the 900-acre community forest. Engeling Wildlife Management Areaqv is in the northern part of the county. Lake Palestine,qv a reservoir of 25,500 surface acres on the Neches River, provides water. In 1990 Palestine still maintained the Herald-Press, a daily newspaper founded around 1900. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carl L. Avera, Wind Swept Land (San Antonio: Naylor, 1964). Pauline Buck Hohes, A Centennial History of Anderson County, Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1936). Palestine Herald-Press, April 21, 1982. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Lester Hamilton Recommended citation: "PALESTINE, TX." The Handbook of Texas Online. [Accessed Sat Feb 1 8:56:04 US/Central 2003 ]. The Handbook of Texas Online is a joint project of The General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin (http://www.lib.utexas.edu) and the Texas State Historical Association (http://www.tsha.utexas.edu). Copyright ©, The Texas State Historical Association, 1997-2002 Last Updated: July 23, 2002 Comments to: comments.tsha@lib.utexas.edu http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/print/PP/hep1.html

[mewzilla]

I don't know what's worse: terrorists or NASA screwing up. I know this was the oldest shuttle in the fleet and things can happen even with the best of intentions, but if NASA screwed up again...

[SpookBrat]

We moved to Florida last year from North Texas, north of Dallas. When the space shuttle takes off, it flies directly over house. This is very sad. My hands are shaking and I can't type very well.

[Disgusted in Texas]

Dear Lord ,they're gone..So tragic.May God give comfort to their families.Please pray for them.

[Cagey]

Thanks for the link to your thread too. Incredible.

[Morrigan]

Probably too soon to say, but it doesn't sound like terrorism.....my heart breaks for those on the shuttle and their loved ones on the ground....

[anniegetyourgun]

I wish he would hurry. Once again, I'm thankful we don't have President Gore right now. However, I wonder if W will make it to see another term - one like this would be enough for a lifetime.

[wimpycat]

Nothing could reach the shuttle at the altitude at which NASA lost contact....except maybe the Russians.

Certainly nothing could have reached the shuttle from the ground.

This isn't terrorism.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Security was so tight due to the Israeli astonaut on board.

[TimPatriot]

No concrete reason to suspect sabotage or attack yet that I have heard, however, interesting coincidence that an Israili was on board.

[revtown]

I think they already have a soyuz capsule at the ISS as an escape pod.

[isthisnickcool]

Thanks for posting the list. We know so many of these people that were were not sure who was riding this time. I don't see anyone we know personally on the list.

I just talked to a friend that trains over at NASA and he said he just can't think of anything that would cause something like this.

I'll buy some flowers this AM and take them over to the NASA gate. I'll put FREEREPUBLIC on the card.