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."

[Howlin]

Yeah......LOL. Confusing, ain't they?

[Torie]

Does someone really think Bush is going to second guess NASA on technical scientific issues based on one letter, assuming he was even aware of it? This one wasn't on anyone's radar screen, and if it was, it would have been posted at FR. Granted it is fair to point out that it existed. I am more upset that Bush still can't pronounce "nuclear," and well a couple of other things. But NOT this! Enough already.

[Mo1]

Well if you want to start pointing fingers I guess we can point them at Jimmy Carter also ..

Not sure how true this is since I am not an expert in this area , but I was told if Jimmy had alowed NASA to build the shuttle as designed from Titanium instead of Aluminum covered with ceramic tiles, this wouldn't have happened.

[Fred Mertz]

Thanks for posting that article. It should be its own thread for discussion.

[Howlin]

Looks like someone is going to answer for allowing this mission to proceed.

And we all know you're just the guy to hold their feet to the fire.

[Howlin]

Does someone really think Bush is going to second guess NASA on technical scientific issues based on one letter, assuming he was even aware of it?

Yes, Todd does. And he says it's out there and we have to deal with it now....or else!

[Fred Mertz]

Looks like someone is going to answer for allowing this mission to proceed.

People should question NASA's utility. What has NASA done for me lately?

[CWOJackson]

It's fair to point out existed, but it exists alongside a few hundred thousand other letters the White House probably has received in the past couple of years. I just can't believe that we still have smoking wreckage on the ground and there are folks jumping up and down waving a letter and yelling Bush must pay.

Common decency would cause a morale person to wait at least until the smoke clears.

[unspun]

Yeah, the thing kinda looked like the old mobile home that the park owner wants off his court.

[r9etb]

I was also shocked to see in that Columbia photo that got posted in several threads, just how dilapidated this shuttle looked. Yes, I do know airworthiness and appearance are not necessarily related, but the thermal tiles in that photo looked like a patchwork quilt that had been mended many, many times.

The tiles of any Shuttle that's flown look like that. Last I knew, they had no clear explanation for why, but it doesn't actually affect their performance.

[Fred Mertz]

The administration will have to answer that letter and you know it. You should be thanking TLB for airing it here.

[Howlin]

Oh, sure....he has the best intentions.

[TLBSHOW]

Your correct about Carter and I would have to ask did Don write a letter to Bill Clinton. Why did he quit in 1999? who was president in 1999. There are plenty of questions that need answers.

FYI
I am not pointing any finger I am only pointing out what is coming, either deal with it or don't. I always say deal with it Good or Bad!

My first thought is did he write to Clinton too and why did he leave in 1999? Oh and is he a democrat? Those are some questions and what did The President answer back to Don?

[unspun]

I just can't believe that we still have smoking wreckage on the ground and there are folks jumping up and down waving a letter and yelling Bush must pay.

After that NAACP dragging death ad during the 2000 campaign (and the media's acceptance of it) we can expect just about anything.

[Chesterbelloc]

My GUESS is that the forces would have ripped it apart immediately - ie in much less than a second. Like those videos of buildings when a shock wave from a nuclear explosion hits them. 14,000 mph is pretty darn fast.

And since its late and I'm tired and ready for bed and I'm guessing - here's my take - it's free so take it for what its worth:

5:15 Shuttle Deorbits

5:44 Shuttle first encounters Earth's atmosphere and starts heating up.

5:53 Shuttle is now just north of San Francisco infiltrating heat takes out the first sensor. NASA is not concerned - in the press conference they said that this sometimes happens.

5:55 Shuttle passes by me - heat continues to take out sensors - nothing is noticable from the ground.

5:58 Shuttle passes over Owen's Valley and into Nevada - from the ground at Owen's Valley (Eastern side of Sierras) he should have been able to see the shuttle as it passed over much of Nevada. Heat now takes out tire (it pops) and tire pressure sensor goes off. Maybe this causes something that is seen from the ground at Owen's Valley but not noticed aboard the shuttle.

6:00 Shuttle passes into Texas - it has now sustained enough damage for a catastrophic event.

Night all - hope we never have another day like this. God Bless and Keep the families...

[Jael]

Reading these two comments gives one a different slant on the whole issue. I came across them in two differnt threads, or maybe the top one I found at Spacenews, I can't remember and I am too tired to go back and read through all of my history. But just think, if they took out the freon, and it caused this problem??????

AEDC Performs Shuttle Materials Test for NASA/Lockheed Martin

ARNOLD AFB, Tenn.
-Arnold Engineering Development Center is assisting the National Aeronautics Space Administration with improvements in existing Space Shuttle materials. According to NASA, during several previous Space Shuttle flights, including the shuttle launched Nov. 29, 1998, the shuttle external tank experienced a significant loss of foam from the intertank. The material lost caused damage to the thermal protection high-temperature tiles on the lower surface of the shuttle orbiter.
The loss of external tank foam material and subsequent damage to reentry tiles is a concern because it causes tile replacement costs to significantly increase,,u. however, it is not a flight safety issue. As a result, NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center selected AEDC to perform flight hardware materials tests on the shuttle's external tank panels in the center's von Karman Facility Supersonic Tunnel A.

The purpose was to establish the cause of failure for the tank thermal protection materials at specified simulated flight conditions. "NASA chose AEDC due to its technical expertise and historical program successes," Steve Holmes, a NASA-MSFC technical coordinator, said

A review of the records of the STS-86 records revealed that a change to the type of foam was used on the external tank.
This event is significant because the pattern of damage on this flight was similar to STS-87 but to a much lesser degree. The reason for the change in the type of foam is due to the desire of NASA to use "environmentally friendly" materials in the space program.
Freon was used in the production of the previous foam. This method was eliminated in favor of foam that did not require freon for its production. MSFC is investigating the consideration that some characteristics of the new foam may not be known for the ascent environment."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834139/posts?page=54#54 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834139/posts?page=54#54

[Fred Mertz]

It's probably not a smoking gun, but it will have to be smacked down by the administration...hopefully. Intents or otherwise.

[CWOJackson]

Sad commentary on the values of some folks.

[TLBSHOW]

You should of seen the liberals earlier today when I pointed out to them that the cause was the left wing! LOL

[r9etb]

Thanks for the ping. Extra good stuff.

Based on how the sensors failed, I can see now why they'd be focused on the elevons. It appears that the failures started there, and propagated sort of forward and inward.

One possible culprit might be the hinge area -- a good ding in the tiles thereabouts might cause problems there and propagate inward.

Of course, we're assuming it's a thermal protection failure. The right kind of hardware failure might have a similar effect. For example, suppose a hydraulic line burst -- it might kill sensors, loosen tiles, and there you go.....