[mhking]

Oh, my God. I've been away from the radio and everything else. This is awful.

[exhaustedmomma]

Just talked to my brother-in-law who lives in Livingston, Texas. He said he was out in his front yard with his grandson watching the shuttle fly over. He saw the explosion... he is freaking!! He swears there was a plane in the air, too. Is that possible? It isn't too far from Houston International, so I suppose it is nothing.

[DoughtyOne]

'

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

Mission - sts107

[TheDivineRightOfLifesScum]

I just heard about what happened, I extend my heartfelt sympathies to the crew, their families and friends, and their workmates at NASA and elsewhere.

[ladysusan]

Juat got off the phone with my daughter whose in laws live in Palestine Texas. FIL reports a large grass fire in the area. Daughter reports hearing loud sounds, like a lot of large people running around in the attic as the shuttle passed over.

[bandleader]

I don't know what I'm talking about but from what I've heard this morning,(Lovell,Aldrin et al.)it would appear that the computers that control the angle at which the shuttle makes contact with the atmosphere for re-entry failed!It's hard to imagine this happening because there is most certainly a built-in redundancy!!

[HAL9000]

Twenty years ago -

Bill Pogue - who at the time held the record for most time in space (on Skylab) - was telling me how bad the space shuttle was. He was on a rant about how Nixon had "poor-boyed" the design.

I didn't give it much thought until a few days later, during the Challenger disaster.

Now we need a Richard P. Feynmann to get to the bottom of this.

[isthisnickcool]

A crank caller got on live with Dan Rather and said "You are an idiot". Rather replied "I am an idiot".

[DoughtyOne]

'

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

Mission - sts107

[DoughtyOne]

'

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

Mission - sts107

[Audit_Jesse]

NASA lowering flags to half-staff.

[kstewskis]

Again.

Just this week many of us were mourning the 17th anniversary of losing The Challenger.

God welcome these 7 home.

[Crusader21stCentury]

God now has seven more brave warriors by his side.

They were our warriors for advancing Mankind to the eventual day when we will touch our Lord without having to pay the high price that these brave individuals had to pay today.

I know that God will bless their families;
it is our job to comfort the families now in their time of loss. These seven brave souls gave their all for us, I just want to say thank you.

[clintonh8r]

Just checking in to express my regrets. Exploration is dangerous. We must never stop and we must never lose our human curiosity.

[Polly]

Any word on where the pieces are falling/have fallen???

[rs79bm]

Just put my flag out flying high. Encourage everyone else to do the same.

[rimtop56]

Local radio played a tape of a 911 dispatcher in St. Augustine, Texas. She said that a hand and an arm were found plus much debris.

[Fitzcarraldo]

It only takes ONE TILE to dislodge to destroy a Shuttle.

[DoughtyOne]

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

[dawn53]

I haven't been watching this thread for the past fifteen minutes, so maybe this has already been answered:

but why is the President traveling in a motorcade back to Washington. Doesn't he usually fly?

The scroll across the bottom of one of the news channels (CNN, I think) said his motorcade was heading to Washington? Does he usually drive from Camp David to Washington?