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.

[Republic of Texas]

At any given time, there can be 200 planes above DFW.

[txdoda]

Local TX news reporting debris is still falling in East
Tx area.....

[prisoner6]

Agreed! We MUST press on...volunteers if need be. It's a dangerous job with no guarantees. Grinding things to a halt only dishonors those who went before and paid the price.

Update the STS, starts a new program, anything but sit back and review for several years.

prisoner6

[The South Park Republican]

NEVER FORGET!! GET IT !!! NEVER FORGET!!! MORON!!!

Take your hatred someplace else. Not EVERYTHING is the fault of Muslims. I think you would feel more comfortable on DUhhh right now. They're blaming this on Bush. I hold you in the same regard as them.

[areafiftyone]

I would think if a plane was that to the shuttle that was breaking up the plane would have experienced some sort of disaster. That person probably didn't realize that there is a big difference in altitude btwn the plane and a NASA Space shuttle coming in.

[alrea]

anyone who celebrates is a sub-human BUMP

[Trust but Verify]

Yesterday, I was substitute teaching at Horlick High School in Racine, which was Mission Specialist Laurel Clark's alma mater.

My alma mater as well. Class of '78.

[ladysusan]

NBC Dallas is reporting that there are pulverized pieces floating in the air in large fields in all layers of the atmosphere.. Distribution mainly Cherokee County on a west to east path. Visible to weather radar. They say it will be hours before this all falls back to earth.

[Tommyjo]

"Does anyone know if they give the astronauts parachutes?"

Yes. The following in compiled from several websites:

"NASA added the shuttle bailout system after the 1986 Challenger accident, which killed seven astronauts. Engineers also designed a partially pressurized flight suit for astronauts to wear during launch and landing that is equipped with an air supply, parachute, life preserver, survival gear and a backpack with an inflatable life raft.

None of the gear, however, would be of any use unless the crew successfully escaped from the shuttle's cabin, a feat that would only be possible in the unlikely scenario that the shuttle's wings were level and it was in a controlled flight.

The first four Space Shuttle flights were equipped with ejection seats, similar to those on SR-71, for the commander and pilot (the only two crew on board for STS-1 thru STS-4). The ejection envelope was good to 100,000 feet. This photo shows STS-1 crew John Young and Bob Crippen in suits identical to those used by SR-71 pilots. The ejection seats take up a considerable amount of room on the upper flight deck.


The bailout sequence begins with the orbiter in a autopilot glide. Crew depressurizes the cabin to equalize the outside pressure and pyrotechnically jettison the hatch. A long escape pole is quickly deployed out the hatch. One by one, each crew member attaches a lanyard hook which is connected to his or her parachute harness to the escape pole and jumps out the door. Attached to the escape pole, the crew member slides down the pole and off the end. The escape pole provides a trajectory that takes the crew members below the orbiter's left wing. An automatic activation device deploys the parachute canopy.

A typical exit altitude begins at about 30,000 to 20,000 feet. Spacesuits provide protection against sudden cabin depressurization since the normal orbiter cabin pressure is at sea level pressure. For emergency bailout, the astronauts will not have time to do a proper pre-breath like skydivers jumping from 30,000 feet. Also, the suit provides protection against the highspeed air blast while exiting the orbiter and extreme exposure protection if landing in frigid North Atlantic waters. This crew escape system cannot be used during ascent (main engines and SRBs burning)."

Ronald Reagan, addressing NASA employees following the tragic loss of the Challenger 7 crew on STS-51L, used part of a famous poem in a well-remembered line:

"We shall never forget them nor the last time we saw them, as they prepared for their mission and waved good-bye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God."


In honour of these lost souls onboard Columbia:


Hight Flight by WWII Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr
Royal Canadian Air Force.


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 ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

[myrabach]

My son and I both watched the live launch of the Challenger and explosion. Its an event we will never forget, and now this. My heart is breaking. I have never stopped being amazed by our ventures into space. Never have I taken this forgranted... its a marvel! I'm old enough to remember Flash Gordon as part of the Saturday matinee movies.

[txradioguy]

talking to a friend of mine in Lafayette, La. said about the time the Shuttle lost contact with Mission Control....he heard 10-15 really loud booms close on top of each other.....he's ex-USAF and cal tell the difference between a sonic boom and an explosion......*sigh*

[exhaustedmomma]

I find this stuff interesting, but generally this is a little more than most people need or care to know.

Okay... I am still wearing my tinfoil beanie. Does this mean generally like the whole story, or generally like you have ideas rolling through your head??? My husband keeps saying sabatoge is highly unlikely. BTW, my dad use to be safety inspector for NASA (early program)... unfortunately, he passed away 3 years ago. Sure wish he was around... he was invaluable during Challenger. All in all... appreciate your taking time to calm my paranoid streak here! ;)

[freedumb2003]

>>This is far more likely to be a result of Tank Insulation damaging tiles on the wing <<

Occam's razor. Does anyone know if they went EVA to inspect the damage?

[FreeAtlanta]

The guy who filmed some of the footage, had filmed a lot of other shuttles. He said that he noticed before the break up that the shuttle seemed to be moving faster than usual.

[Republic of Texas]

Nothing firm yet, but that is the speculation. Plano is responding in more force than would be needed for an apartment fire.

[ppaul]

Instead of flushing millions of $$$ down the toilet on AIDS in Africa, why not build a better, safer, Space Shuttle, eh?

[Connservative]

The DUmba$$es are already at it with their conspiracy theories. >:( One even suggested that this was concocted by the 'Bushies' because of his lame (?) SOTU address.

I am so angry, I better stop before I start printing *$%#%$

[snopercod]

OEX can't be downlinked (unless they've changed it in the last few years). They simply remove the recorder, pop the lid, and send the 1" tape to Houston post-landing.

The OPS 1 & 2 data can be downlinked (actually it's sent to the TDRSS), but it is my sense that it is not usually done anymore. anymouse might be able to answer that question when he get's off work.

I fear that the "debris" will be just a bunch of cinders (or maybe just atoms), and we will never know what happened.

Looking at the video of the breakup, it seems to have started with a "puff" which looked to be toward the left side. That could have been an OMS pod. Pure speculation...

[Centurion2000]

CNN is reporting it exploded over Palestine, Texas

Ok, sounds like some PLO sympathetic writer just wrote that.