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.

[DoughtyOne]

I'm sure you've had this answered, but I'll mention it too. Probably less than thirty seconds, certainly less than sixty seconds before touchdown. It's rather earie, but they do it at the last moment.

[Steel Wolf]

There must be a normal wear and tear cycle to be reached with spacecraft. Even gun barrels, a relatively simple device, have to be replaced after a certain amount of firing. I can't imagine the level of stress the frame of the space shuttles must take over the course of a mission. To keep reusing it for a 25 year period seems utterly negligant.

[bootless]

No confirmation. An author I work with who lives in Israel wrote this, though, after I asked her and offered my condolences for her homeland:

Today is a sad day for both our countries. And i send condolences....it is a death in the 'family of man', and death is so difficult to deal with.

Be well, and if our enemies rejoice, and they will, let them!

Israelis - and Americans - are survivors.

[betty boop]

Do you have any specific reasons WHY we can rule out Heat Tile Failure? (I'm curious)

The reports I'm hearing suggest that the loss of some heat tiles on reentry is actually quite normal -- most flights lose heat tiles. This would need to be a loss of tiles of catastrophic proportions. Yet all the exhaustive tests the crew conducted yesterday in preparation for re-entry indicated no problems with the craft or any of its vital systems. If there is a heat-tile component involved here, then (speculating) perhaps it was occasioned at the point of the attitude change. That is, it would be the result of another cause. It has further been reported that it's unlikely the attitude change came from an on-board explosion.

Of course, I really don't know what happened for sure, Chad Fairbanks. We'll just have to wait for the experts to weigh in.

[Smittie]

May we all mourn for the four dead on the Blackhawk a few days ago as much as we do today,, It seems our brave military heroes never get the same sympathy

That's unfortunately is true. May God keep them all in the palm of his hand.

[backhoe]

katt, thank you- I'll use that. Still kind of stunned.

[mikrofon]

[Allegra]

President Bush to address the nation in about five minutes...per FNC.

[bootless]

OK, thanks.

[tomkat]

FNC just said W will speak in about five minutes.
IOW, about 2pm EST

[marbren]

CNN reported "tiles" fell off?

[Chad Fairbanks]

I know about the loss of tiles being normal - I think we are both in agreement on much of what you say, but so far the loss of critical heat tiles (i.e. in an area where it was not thought that such catastrophic results could ever occur a sort of 'who would have thunk THAt could happen???' type scenario...) seems to be the most likely cause (pending more detailed info, of course) for now... of course, I'm only speculating - I just wanted to know if you were looking at it differently :0)

:0)

[mombonn]

President to speak at 2:00

[visualops]

oh good Lord
reading that just made me lose all the composure I've been trying to keep.
Didn't see the news this morning. Had to take our 17 yr old cat in to be put down. That was tough enough, but to come home only to see this...


Just heard on the news right now that the President will be addressing the nation in about 5 minutes. An awful lot of weight has been placed on his shoulders, but right now I cannot imagine any one else more capable of handling it.

[ShandaLear]

[valleygal]

Asronaut Anderson evidently went to grade school in my area (PHX metro) because they are interviewing his brother-in-law.

[general_re]

As described on the tube, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and possibly Mexico. Reports have said the shuttle may have been breaking up as early as California.

If so, it must have been minor - one of the nets (MSNBC?) ran the video of ground control during the approach, with NASA's map of the shuttle location. And they were still communicating with the shuttle as it was passing over the Texas panhandle, if I saw the map correctly. At least up until that point, it was intact enough that the crew apparently had no indication of trouble - the last communication about the tire pressure appeared to come just as it was passing over central Texas...

[AppyPappy]

MSNBC showed some people standing around a "tile" which looked like a cinder block.

[betty boop]

Perhaps this is what happened, 6ppc. It seems to make sense. What I'm wondering about is whether there could have been any interference with normal system communications that could have been a factor.

Again, I don't know what happened. We can theorize, but in the end we'll have to wait for the results of the investigation(s).

[CyberAnt]

There is a Russian space capsule AT THE STATION - so the astronauts can leave anytime they need to.