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."

[Chesterbelloc]

You know when I saw this on tv early today I thought it was a shot directly behind the shuttle and then camera pulled back and it was obvious from the plume that it was a side shot. It doesn't seem likely that the shuttle could be moving sideways at that speed without immediately falling apart. I mean how much stress could the side of the shuttle take?

I wonder if NASA will be able to get accurate times for when all these videos were taken and match it up with their downloaded data of what was going on?

[TLBSHOW]

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Don+Nelson+%2Cnasa

[Howlin]

Outstanding! I love Freepers!

[Howlin]

I knew if you stayed up late enough you'd find a way to blame Bush.

[Jael]

I wish I could find the post. It was so interesting. Or that whole thread to be exact. There were some folks on there who worked at NASA. One retired and one current. (At Kennedy.) And a few real science people, math guys, and astronomers. And some very well versed space shuttle guys.

[Howlin]

Look in post 149 on this thread and see if that is the one you were talking about; fascinating (even though I don't understand it all, but maybe you will).

[unspun]

Check out post #51 (or is that area 51?). Looks plausible to me. I think the failures of the left in board and left out board temperature sensors were significant, don't you? Then came the tire pressure irregularity. The man on the radio in Challenger knew there were problems and that looks like "California - time" per the original post of this thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834060/posts?page=51#51

[Howlin]

The man on the radio? I think he THOUGHT something, but didn't KNOW anything.

And as that post says, there was nothing obvious until they lsot contact. Then they begin to add it up.

[TLBSHOW]

Blame yourself Howlin as you said. "I'll take NASA's word, if you don't mind."

Oh mocking one!

And fyi

I am not blaming the President!

All I was pointing out is the craft was in trouble long before Texas. You the thread nanny just had to chime in as normal to mock me!

[unspun]

Challenger = Columbia

[TLBSHOW]

Thanks!

[Howlin]

Parrot.

[unspun]

Got a call from my pal Bill Frist, he told me. ;-)

[Howlin]

And please see the links in #149 for an expert explanation of what he thought he might have seen.

[Fred Mertz]

Did you mean Patriot?

[Right_in_Virginia]

In a letter to the White House, Don Nelson, who served with NASA for 36 years until he retired in 1999, wrote to President George W. Bush warning that his 'intervention' was necessary to 'prevent another catastrophic space shuttle accident'.

Oh, PALEESE!

I've been a supporter of a couple of your opinions in the past...but this is just plain ridiculous.

[TLBSHOW]

My suggestion is that he gets it out in the open now and deal with it, because its all over net the tv and papers.

When Fox reports it you know its just started. That letter must be dealt with, hard as it may or may not be.

And quit your mocking you look like a child!

[r9etb]

I mean how much stress could the side of the shuttle take?

For it to scatter pieces where it did, the Shuttle must have broken apart very soon after this video was taken.

[Howlin]

Nobody who has no principles is a patriot. Todd will change his one a whim if he thinks it will get him attention.

[Howlin]

I suggest you get a life.