Columbia Discussion thread

Feb 1, 2003

[Admin Moderator]

'

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

Mission - sts107

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This is a continuation of the original thread.

Shuttle Contact LOST-No Tracking Data During RE-Entry!

ANY DU LINKS OR POSTS WILL BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY. Keep them on the original thread.

[hole_n_one]

idiot!

[EternalVigilance]

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058

Biographical Data

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ilan Ramon (Colonel, Israel Air Force) Payload Specialist

PERSONAL DATA: Born June 20,1954 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Married to Rona. They have four children. He enjoys snow skiing, squash. His parents reside in Beer Sheva, Israel.

EDUCATION: Graduated from High School in 1972; bachelor of science degree in electronics and computer engineering from the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1987.

SPECIAL HONORS/AWARDS: Yom Kippur War (1973); Operation Peace for Galilee (1982); F-16 1,000 Flight Hours (1992).

EXPERIENCE: In 1974, Ramon graduated as a fighter pilot from the Israel Air Force (IAF) Flight School. From 1974-1976 he participated in A-4 Basic Training and Operations. 1976-1980 was spent in Mirage III-C training and operations. In 1980, as one of the IAF's establishment team of the first F-16 Squadron in Israel, he attended the F-16 Training Course at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. From 1981-1983, he served as the Deputy Squadron Commander B, F-16 Squadron. From 1983-1987, he attended the University of Tel Aviv. From 1988-1990, he served as Deputy Squadron Commander A, F-4 Phantom Squadron. During 1990, he attended the Squadron Commanders Course. From 1990-1992, he served as Squadron Commander, F-16 Squadron. From 1992-1994, he was Head of the Aircraft Branch in the Operations Requirement Department. In 1994, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and assigned as Head of the Department of Operational Requirement for Weapon Development and Acquisition. He stayed at this post until 1998.

Colonel Ramon has accumulated over 3,000 flight hours on the A-4, Mirage III-C, and F-4, and over 1,000 flight hours on the F-16.

NASA EXPERIENCE: In 1997, Colonel Ramon was selected as a Payload Specialist. He is designated to train as prime for a Space Shuttle mission with a payload that includes a multispectral camera for recording desert aerosol. In July 1998, he reported for training at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. He is currently assigned to STS-107 scheduled to launch in 2003.

AUGUST 2002

[Howlin]

I'm listening to Shephard Smith and I heard no such thing.

[Movemout]

There is a Soyuz attached to ISS as a lifeboat. They will probably launch another for backup when they evacuate the crew. It could spell the end for ISS because the shuttle is used to boost the orbit of ISS periodically. It is in a low enough orbit that there is drag from molecular oxygen that exists at that altitude and the effects of gravity.

[Jim Noble]

>>Hogwash. This is ALWAYS their answer<<

We will be discussing this subject after mourning is over.

Needless to say, the politicians who are at fault here are long gone. STS is the result of serious compromises in the 1970s, caused by inadequate funding.

[ambrose]

Too high. 200,000.

Well, terrorism could come in the form of sabaotage by one of the mechanics. But that's just rank speculation, of course.

[Chad Fairbanks]

You are a real piece of work - she hasn't even been dead for 4 hours, and already you are trashing her... why don't you just STFU and take it somewhere else for a while? Huh? There will be plenty of time for that crap later. Just give it a rest for a while. Is that too much to ask?

[SamAdams76]

I doubt that the landing gear would be down at 200,000 feet with an airspeed of some 12,000 mph. I would think that the landing gear would immediately be ripped apart at that speed had it attempted to deploy.

I suspect that the shuttle had sensors monitoring tire pressure and that might have been among the first alarms to trigger at Mission Control as the ship started breaking apart.

I actually started watching the landing coverage at 8:40AM this morning due to a thread posted here earlier about the landing. I never watch these things on my own and it is an eerie coincidence that the one time I sit down to watch a landing, this happens.

I watched the mission control coverage up until 9:15AM, not knowing that anything was wrong. Those people at mission control are as cool as cucumbers. Nobody in that place was visibly excited at all. When the time for the scheduled landing came and went, I tuned to FoxNews out of curiosity and realized instantly that things had gone horribly wrong.

[Howlin]

What is it about people who feel the NEED to come on threads like these with their agendas and say ugly things at a time like this?

[L`enn]

According to the news it is weather related. Dreary day in more ways than one on the East Coast.

[steveegg]

The turns would be to bleed off speed to bring the shuttle down from 17,000+ mph to roughly 200 mph for landing.

[snopercod]

Thanks for the links.

[Conservababe]

I was lowering my flag to half staff just now when a couple of joggers stopped to ask me why. I told them because of the space shuttle loss. They said "oh" and were on their way again.

Nitwits!

[Darlin']

Yes, I just heard on someone say that debris will be falling for some time.

[McLynnan]

And what's with the bonehead Indian gal onboard? This flight was a multi-culti sideshow. If we're serious about space exploration let's act serious and use real pros for all flights

The "bonehead" as you call her just lost her life. Have a little compassion, okay? Read her bio -- she was no slouch and underwent rigorous training prior to this flight. Competition for the NASA program is stiff and I'm sure she deserved her slot.

[Arkinsaw]

As far as some damage to the wing? If the wing was damaged enough to allow burn-thru and then the wing failed that might explain the sudden change in the glider's direction. The wing is breached then is sheared off then....

I had not thought of that. I imagined that if it was a heat shield problem that it would have burned up during the commo blackout. But if the wing had been damaged by a burn-thru then the failure might not have occurred until sometime later.

[Wait4Truth]

Afternoon everyone.....:-(

Good afternoon, Dog...what a horrible day. Glad to have friends like you to share this with. God bless.

[rossusa]

It looks to me like the shuttle was flying sideways on an early fox video that they only show a very few times.

[dep]

a friend, a former lead software engineer in apollo and later second in command at the safety office, was fired for bringing up, among other things -- the turbopumps, for instance -- the lack of software security and shoddy software handling. he ended up taking his own life because of it. he was not the only one.

dep