[RichardW]

CNN is reporting it exploded over Palestine, Texas. This is where I live. I knew something was happening but had no idea at the time.

[Moonman62]

The last voice communications from the crew involved a tire pressure message. Communications were then garbled and static. Contact with the shuttle was lost at about 9 a.m. EST.

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

[Wondervixen]

God be with the crew and if this was terrorist oriented, let's go after the bastards RIGHT NOW!!!

And the Hollyweirdo's and peaceniks better be watching their mouths!!!

[anobjectivist]

This really sucks

IF you look closely at the CNN video you can see a couple large and several small explosions, along with a main contrail that appears to be coming from something that is spinning.

What a horrible day

[lonestar]

I live in souteast and I heard a noise, not loud, that I thought was an explosion. Our windows rattled.

Now I wonder if it was the shuttle.

What I heard lasted for probably 10-15 seconds.

[oldvike]

Prayers for the crew and their families.

Any pics in yet of palestinians cheering in the streets yet?

[jimbo123]

Tuesday was the 17th anniversary of the Challenger explosion and this crew held a memorial on board.

[davidosborne]

My Prayers go out to the families of the crew... If you are in Texas and come across any debris please DO NOT touch it.. Notify LOCAL authorities immediately, they will make the proper notifications.... Pass the word please...

David

[KevinDavis]

I know I shouldn't say this, but I had a feeling this would happen. Our shuttle fleet is old and we should have replaced them asap. I hope this does not hurt human exploration in space. It shouldn't. IMHO

[Thinkin' Gal]

My God, the tree [Ilan, Daniel 4] *was* cut down!

The other day, the instant my morning alarm went off (it is set to the radio) the first thing I heard was what sounded like a mission control person saying that contant was lost and it appeared that the spacecraft had exploded.

I forget the exact words but I awoke with a startle and thought that Columbia had gone down. Moments later, the news announcer continued with the news. Apparently, they were in the midst of replaying audio from the Challenger disaster, when my radio turned on. I was unnerved for hours afterwards.

[leadpenny]

winodog is in the Las Vegas area and he posted this on the thread I started earlier:

It wasnt a glow that spread back like a comet but it must have been "on fire" because it was bright and big.

18 posted on 02/01/2003 9:03 AM EST by winodog

[MeekOneGOP]

Lost in Space Alert !

Heads up Texans. The Shuttle exploded over the Dallas/Fort Worth area, 200,000 feet up (38 miles).

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[IonInsights]

Think of this: there is nothing keeping OBL or whomever else to take credit for this as a terrorist act.

[Cagey]

And this thread was just posted a few days ago by SeeRushtoldu_so. Another sad day.

Where were you 17 years ago today? (Challenger Explosion)

[Luis Gonzalez]

The Green Hills of Earth

Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me
As they rove around the girth
Of our lovely mother planet
Of the cool, green hills of Earth.

We rot in the moulds of Venus,
We retch at her tainted breath.
Foul are her flooded jungles,
Crawling with unclean death.

[ --- the harsh bright soil of Luna ---
 --- Saturn's rainbow rings ---
 --- the frozen night of Titan --- ]

We've tried each spinning space mote
And reckoned its true worth:
Take us back again to the homes of men
On the cool, green hills of Earth.

The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
ALL HANDS!  STAND BY!  FREE FALLING!
And the lights below us fade.

Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.

    -- Robert A. Heinlein

Pray for the families, the crew is resting easy, craddled in the hand of God.

[Reborn]

This is heartbreaking. Praying for all concerned. Dear God......

[Momaw Nadon]

Just heard on the news that the Joint Chiefs are in some sort of "Domestic Events" meeting.

[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

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

My God. This is horible.My prayers are with the families of these astronauts.

Though I have no evidence, my personal opinion is that this is a case of sabotage. Specifically terrorism.
The fact that the first Israeli astronaut was aboard is too telling and is not a coincidence.

I hope that it wasn't, but if it was, I hope for solid evidence to be found to prove it.

[SkyPilot]

Looks like they are gone. My prayer for them:

If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there shall Thy hand lead me,
and Thy right hand shall hold me.

Psalm 139: 9-10

I hope we can lay off the tinfoil posts for at least awhile--thing like stinger missiles reaching 220,000 feet! and strange sightings of "military jets in the area by eyewitnesses." Time to pray for the families.