[Alberta's Child]

I know this isn't the time for making connections that may not mean anything, but both shuttle disasters involved missions in which the basic purpose of the mission had been overshadowed by the "hoopla" surrounding one of the crew membes. I've always believed that the Challenger disaster was a result of NASA's attitude about shuttle flights -- these flights had become little more than multicultural political statements.

[Merdoug]

I just wanted to comment on something if no one else has (haven't read every comment). To me, this looks mighty suspicious. How many crashes has the shuttle had? Two in hundreds? The shuttle crashes over the United States (I don't know a lot about landing; maybe NASA plans it for the shuttle to re-enter the atmosphere in Texas). An Israli on board. If you watch the video, the first explosion seems to be a small one, detected as a small puff of smoke different than the contrail. Could it be possible that there was a bomb on board? I heard something about the landing tires; maybe set to go off as the landing gear drop? Okay. That's all for my wild theory. I'm taking off my aluminum helmet.

[Teacher317]

No wonder the Muslims are celebrating:

Ilan Ramon was born June 20,1954, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ramon graduated from High School in 1972, and received a bachelor of science degree in electronics and computer engineering from Tel Aviv University in 1987.

In 1974, Ramon graduated as a fighter pilot from the Israel Air Force (IAF) Flight School. From 1974-1976, he participated in A-4 Basic Training and Operations. The years 1976-1980 were spent in Mirage III-C training and operations. In 1980, as one of the IAF's establishment team of the first F-16 Squadron in Israel, he attended the F-16 Training Course at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. From 1981-1983, he served as the Deputy Squadron Commander B, F-16 Squadron. From 1983-1987, he attended Tel Aviv University. From 1988-1990, he served as Deputy Squadron Commander A, F-4 Phantom Squadron. During 1990, he attended the Squadron Commanders Course. From 1990-1992, he served as Squadron Commander, F-16 Squadron. From 1992-1994, he was Head of the Aircraft Branch in the Operations Requirement Department. In 1994, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and assigned as Head of the Department of Operational Requirement for Weapon Development and Acquisition. He stayed at this post until 1998. Colonel Ramon has accumulated over 3,000 flight hours on the A-4, Mirage III-C, and F-4, and over 1,000 flight hours on the F-16. Ramon also served in the Yom Kippur War and Operation Peace for Galilee. He was reported also to be one of the pilots involved in the raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981 (Jerusalem Post, January 17, 2003).

In 1997, Colonel Ramon was selected by NASA to serve as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia. In July 1998, he reported for training at the Johnson Space Center, Houston.

The seven member crew of STS 107, including Col. Ramon, successfully launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia at 10:39 a.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003, for a 16-day mission.

Ramon was married with four children.

source

[DoughtyOne]

This is a photo of the shuttle that was lost today. You can right click view to see it full size.

[Bilbo]

Such a long thread, I don't want to get back to stuff that's way past . . . did you folks already touch on Dan Rather getting stung on air?

[DoughtyOne]

This is a photo of the shuttle that was lost today. You can right click view to see it full size.

[DoughtyOne]

On behalf of posters on Free Republic, I post this with deepest sympathy for the crew and their families.

[LadyDoc]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/comp/articleshow?artid=36190097

Asian Indian/American astronaut. Not much coverage here, but there is a large Indian American community here who will be in mourning.
.

Kalpana Chawla did India proud

PTI[ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 01, 2003 09:25:13 PM ]

WASHINGTON: Kalpana Chawla, who is feared to have perished in the Columbia space shuttle mishap along with six others, had done India proud when she embarked on her first space mission on November 19, 1997.

The Karnal-born Chawla, the first Indian American astronaut, began her career at the Ames Research Center at Nasa in 1988.

A graduate in aeronautical engineering from the Punjab Engineering College she began work at the Ames in the area of fluid dynamics.

Following her successful tenure at the Ames, Chawla in 1993 joined the Overset Methods Inc in California as vice president and a research scientist in charge of simulating various body functions for future space missions.

Nasa selected Chawla as an astronaut candidate in 1994 and she joined the 15th group of astronauts in March 1995.

After an year of training and evaluation, Chawla was assigned as a crew representative to work on technical issues for Nasa's Astronaut Office Extra Vehicular Activities, Robotics, dealing in space walks.

She was instrumental in the testing space control software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory.

Chawla's received recognition here and was assigned as mission specialist and prime robotic arm operator on the STS-87 and was involved in the manual capture of an orbiting satellite.

Born in Karnal in Punjab, Chawla did her schooling from the Tagore School in the city and took a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Punjab Engineering College.

She went on to complete her Masters from the University of Texas in 1984 earned a doctorate from the University of Colorado.

[IronJack]

What would cause the aircraft to yaw so dramatically? It hints at a problem with the vertical stabilizer.

[UB355]

My prayers for the families.

[clintonh8r]

It is not in my character to be overly philosophical, but isn't it startling that such an ambitious and complex invention of man can be turned to vapor in a split second by physics and the forces of nature?

[Man of the Right]

The Administration has made a political decision that the incident was an accident rather than terrorism. They put out the story within two hours of the flash.

[quack]

Taken from Kennedy Space Center Online.http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/schedule/schedule.htm

Columbia (OV-102), the first of NASA's orbiter fleet, was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in March 1979. Columbia initiated the Space Shuttle flight program when it lifted off Pad A in the Launch Complex 39 area at KSC on April 12, 1981. It proved the operational concept of a winged, reusable spaceship by successfully completing the Orbital Flight Test Program - missions STS-1 through 4.

Other, more recent achievements for Columbia include the recovery of the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) satellite from orbit during mission STS-32 in January 1990 and the STS-40 Spacelab Life Sciences mission in June 1991 - the first manned Spacelab mission totally dedicated to human medical research.

Columbia is named after a small sailing vessel that operated out of Boston in 1792 and explored the mouth of the Columbia River. One of the first ships of the U.S. Navy to circumnavigate the globe was named Columbia. The command module for the Apollo 11 lunar mission was also named Columbia.

[rs79bm]

NASA's success rate for shuttle launches is now 97.74% Two tradegies being Challenger and Columbia.

[higgmeister]

What did Sheppard Smith say
that got him yanked off the air?

[Kip Lange]

For once in my life, I'm at a loss for words.

[Moonman62]

We are getting reports from Central California from photographers are telling us that they saw a couple small objects flying free of the shuttle's streak across the sky.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/status.html

[DoughtyOne]

If you would like a screen saver of this photo, right click on it to download an 800x600 version.
If you would like a 1024x768 version, please left click.  Once the new photo comes on the screen, right click to download it.
NASA allows free distribution of their images.  This should not be redistributed for profit.
I just discovered a flaw in the larger version and will replace it in a few minutes.

[Timesink]

All--

Please add "STS 107", "STS107" and "FEB 1 2003" to any new threads you may start regarding Columbia. This way we can run keyword searches and easily find all such threads in the future, instead of having half of them fade into oblivion as the 9/11 threads did.

[dreamerintexas]

get the feds to give us a chance to donate to the space program on the tax return instead of the $3 going to some slimy democrat. i know it doesn't come off the refund, but would give us a way to support our country and brave astronauts.