Astronomer saw shuttle apparently in trouble over California

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | 02/01/03 | John Antczak

[socal_parrot]

By John Antczak
ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:03 a.m., February 1, 2003

LOS ANGELES – Space shuttle Columbia appeared to begin trailing fiery debris as it passed over Eastern California early Saturday, well before its destruction over Texas, according to a California Institute of Technology astronomer who witnessed its fiery transit.

Anthony Beasley observed the shuttle's re-entry from outside his home in Bishop, Calif., near Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory, where he is project manager of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy.

"As it tracked from west to east over the Owens Valley it was leaving a bright trail. As it actually moved over the valley there were a couple of flashes. ... Then we could see there were things clearly trailing the orbiter subsequent to that," Beasley said.

Beasley said he, his wife, Anne, and mother-in-law, Anne Finley, had gone outside in the early morning darkness to watch the re-entry from the small town 225 miles north of Los Angeles. He said the sky was clear and dark, and the shuttle was immediately visible when it cleared the Sierra Nevada peaks to the west of Bishop.

He said he had never witnessed a shuttle re-entry before and is not an authority on shuttles, but he immediately thought Columbia was having problems.

"In particular, there was one very clear event where there was a piece that backed off the orbiter. ... It was giving off its own light, then it slowly fell from visibility," he said.

Beasley said he thought the shuttle might be losing some of the heat-resistant tiles that protect it during the fiery re-entry. He said he did not learn of the shuttle's destruction until he went to the observatory and compared notes with two news photographers who had arranged to photograph the re-entry through a telescope.

Beasley said they compared notes and all agreed they had seen what he termed "the bright event, the third event."

"The analogy, I think, is it looked like the shuttle dropped a flare," he said.

He described the scene again: "Pretty soon after we started to see it track there were brief flashes of light. It would sort of flash a little bit and there was an indication of material trailing the orbiter. They would sort of disappear from view. ... That happened two or three times. One of these was very bright. It was a very clear thing. It separated itself from where the orbiter is. It sort of fell behind in the trail and it was burning itself. It was hot itself ... and then the orbiter continued heading toward Texas."

[Keith in Iowa]

They said during the NASA press conference that most likely what was seen over California is plasma, not shuttle parts.

[socal_parrot]

The news conference referenced a viewing in Hawaii.

[Born to Conserve]

"... compared notes with two news photographers who had arranged to photograph the re-entry through a telescope."


What?
Where are the photos!
Will a telescope be able to track something moving that fast?

[Lady Jag]

We are going to be finding debris for years. How many seconds is it from CA to TX for the shuttle and how many states can see it all at once.?

[vger]

I hope the film they got helps solve the cause of this tradegy.

[Keith in Iowa]

However, they did say phenomena such as described in this article, and what was observed in Hawaii is common - plasma...

[Vroomfondel]

Yeah, but they hadn't heard the report, so they were clearly speaking off the cuff.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[TLBSHOW]

The trouble was reported here at FreeRepublic at 9:03 from a freeper from las Vegas.

here

It wasnt a glow that spread back like a comet but it must have been "on fire" because it was bright and big.


2/1/2003 9:03

[Cicero]

I should think plasma would leave a glowing trail, but I shouldn't think it would appear to fall away as described. This sounds like a pretty good witness.

[Keith in Iowa]

And, they also said the point of maximum heat and pressure on re-entry was over Texas.

[Dog Gone]

Yeah, but they hadn't heard the report, so they were clearly speaking off the cuff.

I don't think the timing is right. If I got the sequence right from the NASA conference, there weren't any sensor problems until the Shuttle was over Texas.

Of course, they aren't even sure that the sensor problem is related to what destroyed the Shuttle.

[Chesterbelloc]

I live up in the Sierra Nevada mountains here in California and I went out with the kids this morning to watch the shuttle go by. It went by at around 5:55 - big fireball trailing its plume of smoke. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary as it went past. It is a very amazing sight. God rest the crew..

[mvpel]

It was very irritating - the post here on FR stated a time of 4:48am, instead of 5:48am Pacific Time. I got up to look for it, but went back to bed.

I did hear the double sonic boom, I believe, and the rumble of its passage - it woke me up at least a little.

[cgbg]

This report and the Vegas report later in this thread make sense.

Temperature sensors started failing several (five, six, seven) minutes before loss of contact over Texas. At 12,000 miles an hour in five minutes we are talking 1,000 miles.

[Dog]

fyi...

[thinktwice]

Will a telescope be able to track something moving that fast?

Yes.

[jwfiv]

After watching the video umpteen times, but having never seen the shuttle in descent before, it's hard to tell if it's merely glowing when we first see it, and leaving a vapor trail, or if it's already combusted and trailing fire and smoke along with vapor.

It looks to me already burning when the video begins.

Then the burning becomes obvious and the shuttle begins to spin like a rifled bullet and then break apart 2-3 seconds later.

The fireball we see before breakup might be 300 yards across, and there were heroes in its center.

It's a terrible terrible sight, my eyes and heart are in pain.

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah, but they hadn't heard the report, so they were clearly speaking off the cuff.

They hadn't seen the report, but they certainly have some information of their own. They had equiment of their own with more than a casual eye on the shuttle over California.