Prayers for the families of Columbia
Posted on 02/01/2003 6:56:54 AM PST by kattracks
Edited on 04/13/2004 1:40:20 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Shuttle contact lost, NASA declares emergency
Shuttle seen over Texas before communication lost
Saturday, February 1, 2003 Posted: 9:56 AM EST (1456 GMT)
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston, Texas (CNN) -- Mission controllers lost contact Saturday with the space shuttle Columbia as it sliced through the atmosphere toward an planned landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Search-and-rescue teams from the Dallas-Fort Worth area were alerted and area residents were urged to stay away from any possible debris from the shuttle, which may be hazardous, said NASA public affairs officer James Hartfield.
The Bush administration was preparing to convene a "domestic event" conference among all domestic and military agencies that may be involved in the next step.
NASA officials said they last had contact with the shuttle at about 9 a.m. EST, and it had been expected to touch down at about 9:16 a.m. EST.
The shuttle was at 200,700 feet, traveling at 12,500 mph, when contact was lost.
Video of the shuttle tracking over Dallas showed multiple vapor trails, but NASA spokesman Kyle Herring said it was too early to determine the source.
Steve Petrovich, a police officer in Palestine, Texas, said he heard "a rumble and boom" at about 8 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. EST).
Jim Hubbs of New Boston, Texas, said he heard police discussing over a police scanner "a smoking object going southeast" that disappeared in the Bowie County area near the Arkansas state line.
Officials said no tracking data were available.
Israel's first astronaut was among the 7-person crew.
Columbia is the oldest of NASA's shuttle fleet, first launched in 1981. It was on its 28th mission.
The possibility occurs that someone could have planted a bomb. Certainly no missile at that altitude/velocity.
Now the entire Shuttle fleet will be grounded; we will have to evacuate the Space Station and it will have to be done via Soyuz.
--Boris
Even if another vehicle had to be launched to rescue the crew, and the Columbia skuttled in orbit?
How easy could it be to sabotage the insulation panels over the fuel tanks in an attempt to ruin a Jewish triumph?
< /removing tin hat >
ditto. No way a SAM or scud could have hit this target. Sounds like it was tile damage causing a furher peel on re-entry. Remember in the early shuttle days they had problems with tiles falling off during re-entry. With the damage on lift off, I would guess that more tiles fell off when atmoshpere was encountered, snowballing until breakup occurred. I just hope it was fast and painless for the poor souls inside.
How could you possibly know that?
Watch the crawls on CNN, etc...repoprts of debris found in various places in TX...
Indeed, there are no anti-aircraft missiles that can reach 200,000 feet, and making one would be virtually impossible, even if al-Qaeda had a massive project backed by Iraq and Mexico. (It would be a big missile, hard to hide without backing from Mexican or Texan authorities.)
But at least some Islamists will claim "credit," either for themselves or on behalf of Allah himself. They could not help themselves, given the Israeli angle and the Palestine Texas angle.
On that note, I just heard that the Israel Air Force Colonel on board was one of the pilots who bombed the Osirak reactor in Iraq 20 years ago.
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