Columbia Discussion thread

Feb 1, 2003

[Indy Pendance]

How much more does our President have to endure.

[Ima Lurker]

She failed to enter a computer command before releasing the Spartan Satellite causing it to malfunction and ruined the Spartan mission. She then tried to retrieve it with the robot arm, but pushed it further away instead. Two other astronauts had to go out and catch it by hand. This happened in 1997.

This does not make her a terrorist, but I can't help but wonder if she were a white male if she would have been given a second chance. And no, I am not a white male.

[Friend of thunder]

I certainly hope lurkers do not consider that statement to be atypical of FReeper I think you used a double negative.

[ChemistCat]

He's not enduring it alone by any means.

Remember please he WANTED to be President. I love and pray for him but this is his destiny.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

"The Israeli astronaut piloted the mission against that Bahgdad nuclear reactor back in the late '80s. I don't even want to think about the speculation my fevered little brain seemingly wants to engage in right now."

The purpose of this forum is to ask those tough questions. No need to put yourself down. Sure. It might be a coincidence. But then again, is it? It's pretty obvious that the Feds never want to say such-and-such was a terrorist attack unless it is as impossible to hide as 9-11. Their denial is sheltering Americans too much. First off, we can't trust the Feds to admit what is or is not terrorism, so we are left to speculate about everything. Secondly, sheltered voters don't know how dangerous terrorism really is.

Of course, I must stress since critics would conveniently forget what I wrote above, there is a good chance this was a coincidence. But when I think of a couple commercial jet 'investigations', how can I be sure the Feds would tell us the truth about this?

FReegards....

[sonofatpatcher2]

A suggestion to ALL to make things easy to understand:

Re: Cut & Paste the comment or Post you are replying to here

Make your comment here.

Just making your comment without any reference many times does not make any sense.

This will help all of us.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Y aknow what? Maybe you need to actually know something about it before you pen your mouth... lots of 'white males' have screwed up during space missions, and they seem to have been sent back up for more missions...

Humans are humans - they all make mistakes. No one is perfect.

Deal with it.

[betty boop]

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

Agreed, CF. In logic, there is a distinction to be made between "proximate cause" and "sufficient cause." Heat tile failure may have been the proximate cause. Which means there is a cause that lies behind it -- the sufficient cause. That is, what caused the heat tile problem to achieve such a critical state? Which may have been the incident that occurred at take-off. Or maybe not. Again, on-board systems on the pre-re-entry test series were said to have reported all systems "go."

[valleygal]

President is quoting from the book of Isaiah.

[Ichneumon]

That was my very first thought when I heard about this - the shuttles are old machines. Now I know that commercial aircraft, with proper maintenance, can last 30+ years before having to be taken out of service. However, it seems to me that the stresses put on the shuttle's airframe would be much greater than those placed on a Boeing jet, causing the frame to wear out more quickly.

On the other hand, they fly less often, so it may even out.

[Mamzelle]

re: but I can't help but wonder if she were a white male if she would have been given a second chance. And no, I am not a white male. )))

This just goes on and on! I'll be happy to tell you the names of several white male astronauts who made worse mistakes and got a second chance. Only, not now. And, no, I am not a while male, either.

I'm also willing to bet that when the astronaut was given the opportunity to go fix the problem, he didn't say, "Oh, Heck." He said "Oh, Boy!!"

[null and void]

Thank you.

[L`enn]

Look at the resume, she was more than qualified. Stereotypes can be positive as well as negative, saying that Indians I have met are incredibly intelligent, particularly in the area of business AND science, and their work ethic is intense. I trust that her being placed on the mission was well-deserved (unfortunately due to the result :(

[steveegg]

CBS News reported just before President Bush's address that NASA was looking at the possibility of failure of the left wing as the most-likely cause.

[CyberAnt]

The space station is equipped with a Russian space capsule, and the astronauts can leave the space station at any time if they need to.

[CFC__VRWC]

On the other hand, they fly less often, so it may even out.

You may be right. I think I'm going to break out my old Materials textbook and review the sections regarding metal fatigue.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I'll keep that in mind next time I post... if I remember to. I don't THINK I've ever forgotten anything, and I if I did, I probably don't remember anyway...

[hole_n_one]

[MrNatural]

The shuttle's airframe was originally certified for 100 flights; however, the
shuttles were intended to fly much more often. The Columbia was therefore like
an automobile that had only been driven 20K miles but was 30 years old. Their
equipment and 'running gear', if you will, is refurbished and upgraded periodically,
but the airframe itself is Original Equipment.

There's a reason why car makers say five years or 50,000 miles,

[McGruff]

You can see the tears in his eyes.