Columbia Discussion thread

Feb 1, 2003

[MilspecRob]

if she had been a white male it would have never made the news.

[Dog]

Thanks Joe.......look at post 593. Might be of interest.

[mombonn]

#517 - you forgot the barf alert! Yuck, there goes lunch.

[Richard Kimball]

a piece of curved metal the size of the bed of a pick up truck.

Larger pieces of the shuttle will certainly be found. I was responding to a post asking about remains of the astronauts. I've done recovery on civilian aircraft that came down from about 10,000 feet. The shuttle was much higher and apparently involved an explosion and breakup before impact, so the dynamics of this are much different. In my experience, decent size pieces of the craft may be found, but the people are a different story. This isn't the thread for detailed discussion, so I was trying to give an idea without being too descriptive.

[CyberAnt]

"landing gear door"

Interesting ...?? I had not heard that report so far.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Roger that......

[Dog]

Could have been a major tile failure over the landing gear door..

[Redleg Duke]

"How about I don't."

That's not my call. I just made a friendly suggestion, but if your ego demands that you behave in that manner, there isn't anything I or anyone else can say to you that will make you change your behavior.

Go ahead and show us what you are made of...you are only sticking your thumb in your own eye.

[steveegg]

According to FAS, some sample maximum altitudes for missiles:

Patriot PAC-2 (the follow-on to the Scud-"buster" in Desert Storm) - 24,000 meters (79,000 feet)

SA-2 (of U-2 and Vietnam "fame") - 27,000 to 40,000 meters (89,000-132,000 feet)

SA-10 (S-300P, rough equivalent to the Patriot) - 30,000 meters (99,000 feet).

All of these are significantly short of the 200,000 feet the Columbia was at when it broke apart.

[dep]

what remains are found depends on whether the pressure vessel itself broke up. in, for instance, sts-51l, it remained intact until it hit the ocran, following aerodynamic forces that broke the shuttle all to pieces.

they now have smoking craters, so i suspect that it's possible, even likely, that the pressure vessel hit intact.

dep

[valleygal]

Fox showing major smoking crater on the ground.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Please dog, if you or anyone else here any further about those photographers on the west coast, let me know.

[ladysusan]

Ah. I didn't read it, I just skimmed it.
My uncle used to investigate plave crashes back in the 60s. Out of Huntsville. Bless you my friend.

[Chad Fairbanks]

That was my guess earlier - I'll stick ith that until more detailed info comes in...

[CyberAnt]

Well ... I'm just waiting for some dippy democrat to say that x42 never had this opportunity to look presidential.

If any of them do - I can guarantee you THEY WILL NOT ONLY LOSE IN 2004 - THEY WILL LOSE B I G!!!

[Lurking2Long]

Idiot.

[Redleg Duke]

Could be, but his response wasn't much better. I think we are all a bit out of sorts today.

[Dog]

MSNBC is playing the last communications from the shuttle...

They were in a 57% bank to the left..

Tire pressure sensor went off.......then you hear the sounds of the break up...

[Howlin]

Where is that?

[Arkinsaw]

Go ahead and show us what you are made of...you are only sticking your thumb in your own eye.

I think not. If somebody posts something like that I'm going to question what they meant by it and not ignore it. Thats just how it is.