U.S.: No Indication of Shuttle Terrorism

AP | 2/01/03

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Shut up, idiot. Quit embarrassing your parents, and just STFU.

[SunStar]

Still, I can't imagine how any foreign power could have brought the Columbia down, flying at Mach 7 at 207,000 feet.

If there was a way, it was through sabotage, IMHO.

[Pyro7480]

With you sir, no name-calling is required. Your behavior on FR is enough for people to make their own conclusions. I'm not going to stoop to your level in response to your tirade.

[cynwoody]

If the sand nazis had the ability to shoot down a reentering space shuttle at 203,000 feet and 12,500 mph, don't you suppose our inventory of 747's would be a little short by now? Probably starting with that big shiny blue and white one parked at Andrews.

The only way this could be terrorism would be if they managed to infiltrate a sleeper into NASA who performed some very subtle act of sabotage, so subtle it only had a probability of working. If there really were a sleeper agent, his sabotage would much more likely take place during the launch.

[El Gato]

The only possibility of terrorism is that the debris which flew off the shuttle at launch was intentionally loosened.

I wouldn't say that was the only possibility, I can think of several, but won't elaborate at this time, as it would only be idle speculation. It doesn't take much damage to make the Shuttle unflyable. If the re-entry attitude is wrong, you get what we got today, a fireball and lots of debris, or a shuttle that skips off the atmosphere and back into space.

[El Gato]

Still, I can't imagine how any foreign power could have brought the Columbia down, flying at Mach 7 at 207,000 feet.

I can. If whatever might have brought it down was sent up with it. Like the Pan Am over Lockerbie Scotland, for example, altough it wouldn't have to be anywhere near as large if it was sophisticated enough, and that would not be all that sophisticated.

[this_ol_patriot]

The only way this could be terrorism would be if they managed to infiltrate a sleeper into NASA who performed some very subtle act of sabotage, so subtle it only had a probability of working. If there really were a sleeper agent, his sabotage would much more likely take place during the launch.

We know the security on the shuttle itself was tight but what about the security on the boosters and fuel tank? We see that film of something hitting the wing at launch and it's public record what happened to the Challenger. We know terrorists but can be very clever or they think that they are. What if the fuel tank or the boosters were rigged to try simulate the Challenger disaster and it didn't work but indirectly caused damage to the shuttle itself.

[GOPyouth]

What if the fuel tank or the boosters were rigged to try simulate the Challenger disaster and it didn't work but indirectly caused damage to the shuttle itself

Or, what if there was just a major malfunction on the Columbia that caused the death of 7 astronauts?

[El Gato]

Who here has a car 25 years old?

Well it wasn't that old, only about 1/2 that, but the one I just traded in had 375,000 miles on it. Consider though that the newest B-52 about to go to war in the skys over Iraq, is just over 40 years old. The last B-52H was delivered on October 26, 1962. If they re-engine them the BUFFs will still be flying in 2030 and beyond.

Compared to the average BUFF, the Shuttle is hardly used at all, and it gets something between a phase check and a minor overhaul between each flight. Columbia had only flown once since it's last major overhaul and modification. It wasn't that "tired".

[El Gato]

Who are the remaining crew on the ISS and where are they from? Anybody?

Two Americans, one Russian. They are due to get an unmanned resupply flight today, that is Sunday Feb. 2nd. They are good until June with no more resupply. They have a Soyoz "lifeboat" docked to the ISS, should an emergency return be required. They can of course get additional resupply flights, if we pay the Russians for them.

[this_ol_patriot]

Or, what if there was just a major malfunction on the Columbia that caused the death of 7 astronauts?

If it's proven so or terrorism is proven not so then that's what happened but because it seems improbable does not make it impossible and on the day before 9/11 something else also seemed impossible.

[El Gato]

I'm sure with an Israeli and an Indian on board, that wouldn't have been allowed.

Of course it would, we wouldn't want to profile now would we? If we have to nearly strip search old women with walkers and WW-II era Medal of Honor winners, but let those of Arab or other Middle Eastern descent walk right on board, unless they come up on the "random" draw, we could certainly have some "sleepers" working on the shuttle. Not saying that we did nor that this was terrorist sabotage, but I am saying it's way too early to rule that or much of anything else, out.

[CWOJackson]

I was hoping the tin foil hat crowd would take a vacation at least until all the remains had been collected. How long until someone starts pumping things up for their shuttle conspiracy book?

[El Gato]

Amen...If this is terror the time for RAGE will come later.

Agreed. If it turns out to be terror, we'll just have to throw a few more bombs on the BUFFs and Bones.

[FITZ]

It would have to be a terrorist inside NASA ---it seems that everyone would have been very carefully screened and no Middle Easterners or sympathizers would still be working in NASA where they'd have that kind of access. I can see an accident be the more likely explanation. A couple hours before, I happened to be looking out the window and saw a pretty large meteor ---it seems something like that could hit a space shuttle and damage it enough. But nothing should be ruled out yet.

[Dajjal]

This launch was such high profile news in Israel, that I think it is undeniable that, regardless of whether or not they succeeded, Islamicist terrorists MUST have been making EVERY possible effort to sabotage this particular shuttle flight.

All further investigation must begin from this starting point.

[Rackle]

Hey man, calm down. Perhaps it was a joke that was not tasteful, but it was not meant to be serious. Of course, you can never rule anything out.

Too many coincidences, yes, but I think we're looking a bit too far into it--I personally think that it was a mechanical error, unless the Israeli was actually a Palestinian imposter.