Shuttle explodes Over Texas

USA TODAY ^ | 2/01/03 | AP

[kattracks]

CAPE CANAVERAL (AP)

[MrConfettiMan]

I'm sitting here shocked, saddened and with tears in my eyes. Prayers for the crew and their families. For the past eleven years, I've worked for NASA's unmanned space program (low earth sciene satellites) and this is just a terrible tragedy. And just when NASA was reinitiating their "teachers in space" program. I'm beginning to think this week of the calendar is bad luck for NASA what with the Apollo 1 fire, the Challenger disaster and now this. They were all national tragedies.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Dan Rather just had a crank caller, and was so out of it he didn't realize it, and eventually his co-host had to point it out to him!

I was just flipping the channels and turned to CBS. Dan Rather was speaking with a caller who identified himself as Mike from Euless, Texas.

The caller said: "I heard a loud explosion, and there's a big piece of debris in my backyard. I think it might be one of Bababooi's teeth."

Even after that, Rather continued talking normally with the caller, and asked him to explain where Euless, Texas is. At that point the caller said: "you're an idiot!"

Finally, Rather's co-host rescued him and said "uh, that's a crank call."

Rather than said: "well, I am an idiot. Usually we screen out crank calls but obviously our system didn't work this time."

Dan, it's time to be put out to pasture.

[Who dat?]

One thing I do know is that security at NASA uses contracted (rent a cop) security.

I don't know what they do now, but my dad took me into JSC one night (they were preparing for the re-entry of one of the Apollo missions) and they had what appeared to be Air Force guards at the gates. Armed too - and they were stopping cars and checking ID. That was quite a while back though.

I distinctly remember it because even though I was just a kid we'd gone in and out of Army and Air Force bases for years and never stopped at the gate unless we needed directions. I remember thinking NASA must be a pretty important place - more important than an AF base, anyway.

[fightu4it]

The thing that stands out most in my mind is the relative rookie status of most of the crew. I think they said that this was only the Commander's second flight, his previous one being pilot. One would think that all of the flights that leave would have the most experienced flight crew available regargless of the status of the scientists aboard. Anyway it's a terrible tragidy that brings home to everyone the very risky nature of the undertaking in which they were involved.

[nwctwx]

If you check in the next hour or so the debri field is evident on Shreveport Radar

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/radar/loop/DS.p19r0/si.kshv.shtml

Prayers are with the familes.

[Notforprophet]

At 200,000 feet they were well within the atmosphere already. Re-entry may have caused tile damage or other structural damage, but the shuttle re-entered intact, and broke up later.

May God give the families of these brave astronauts peace.

[Marauder]

Richt has du.

[md2576]

My heart goes out to all the families devastated by today's events.

The very familiar sonic boom I hear when the shuttle comes home has been a void in the hearts of this community and felt by the world.

My condolences and respect to all who have given their lives to explore space for the world and our future.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Who Dat:

I need to clarify my statement (this is a really tough time for me, and everyone, right now)

NASA uses contract security...along w military law enforcement and NASA police (govt employees). There are various security elements around KSC.

I apologize if the previous statement threw anyone off.

RWK

---

One thing I do know is that security at NASA uses contracted (rent a cop) security.

I don't know what they do now, but my dad took me into JSC one night (they were preparing for the re-entry of one of the Apollo missions) and they had what appeared to be Air Force guards at the gates. Armed too - and they were stopping cars and checking ID. That was quite a while back though.

I distinctly remember it because even though I was just a kid we'd gone in and out of Army and Air Force bases for years and never stopped at the gate unless we needed directions. I remember thinking NASA must be a pretty important place - more important than an AF base, anyway.

[LibKill]

:(

This really hurts me. I feel so bad for their families too.

[Marauder]

The morons at DU will stop at nothing. They have lost their marbles.

Au contraire, mon ami! They never had any marbles.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in thee my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of thy wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by." Psalms, 57:1

[LonePalm]

Not rocks. Black holes.

Hard to get denser than that.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[cgbg]

Lots of nutcases will jump on this

Nutcase note to future shuttle crews:

If you have a UFO dock with you, aliens board your vessel and give you artifacts for study do not, repeat, do not, report this activity _until after you have landed and secreted away evidence_. ;-)

(end of nutcase post)

More seriously, my sympathy goes out to the families (and less seriously) to the engineers and NASA bureaucrats who will have their heads handed to them for failing to use the correct bailing wire and scotch tape to keep the shuttle together during reentry. ;-)

[LonePalm]

Actually I was thinking about Isaiah 40:30-31.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[markman46]

May they rest in peace

[pttttt]

 

How easy could it be to sabotage the insulation panels over the fuel tanks in an attempt to ruin a Jewish triumph?

I don't think sabotage or terrorism should be ruled out this early. I've been surprised again and again at how security gets taken for granted in the US in too many other ways when it really isn't there. And NASA is in the public relations business at least as much as in the security business (if they're even in the security business). I would keep an open mind at this point.

There was some kind of incident at launch with tiles falling off a wing. Heard something in the distant past re the Challenger about how range security at launch is so tight that one could never get within 30-06 rifle range. Wonder about .50 caliber rifle range, maybe from a point offshore. It would be good to find out that the Space Shuttle is an impossibly hard terrorist target but I don't know that that is true.

Also, a lot of stuff about NASA launches has been contracted out. I don't know if the contractor employees who have access to the Space Shuttle even have to be US citizens.

Something also could have been slipped on board with all the third-party scientific experiment packages that are piggybacked, or something could have been sabotaged.

And (maybe someone from NASA could speak to this) NASA itself doesn't seem to use security clearances. You might need to be a US citizen to be a NASA civil service employee, but I'm not sure many are even left at KSC with all the contracting-out. Commercial background checks only look for a police or conviction record. Possibly excepting some visa problems, the 9-11 terrorists were clean in that respect - no speeding tickets etc.

[kattracks]

NASA Says Shuttle Debris Sighted in Texas
Sat February 1, 2003 11:13 AM ET
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The U.S. space agency NASA said debris from the shuttle Columbia has been sighted in Texas after the orbiter broke up after losing communication with its controllers on Saturday.

The shuttle with seven astronauts on board, including the first Israeli astronaut, lost contact with NASA at about 9 a.m., 16 minutes before its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as it crossed the United States.

"Debris has been sighted in north central Texas. Search and rescue has been dispatched in Dallas-Fort Worth area," NASA said in a statement on its Web site.

Television images showed several white trails in the blue sky -- an indication of the possible breakup of the shuttle because normally only a single trail is visible. Officials immediately warned about the possibility of toxic debris in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

[Bushistops]

Bushistops
As I watched with a sinking heart Fox news detail to us that our Nation has once again suffered a terrible loss I was working on my Virgin Mary painting made from pressed flowers.
My heart goes out to the families of those brave men and women as they slip the bonds of earth and meet our Lord.
may God Bless America and the Isralies who lost one of their own today.

[Polybius]

Think about this: The Israeli piloted the plane that attacked Irag, one of the astronaut's name was Cain and it exploded over Palestine, Texas. Believe me, the Muslim radicals will take this as a sign.

The Shuttle was travelling at 12,500 miles an hour when it broke up. That is 208 miles per minute.

The photo below from this CNN Link was taken by an amateur photographer in Dallas, Texas.

As can be seen in a map of Texas, Palestine, Texas is east of Dallas, Texas.

The news media could have arbitrarilly chosen Dallas, Denton, Lewisville, Grand Praire,Waco, Tyler or dozens of other Texas towns and cities in Texas as "where the Shuttle exploded". Instead, they chose a town with a Biblical name. In the Bible Belt, such towns are not very hard to find.

The Islamists will be all over this association of the Shuttle explosion and Palestine, Texas but it is a bogus association.