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."

[Yasotay]

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

Yes, I track both the ISS and any object (with 1 meter resolution at 250 miles) that has published orbital elements with my Meade LX200 & Satellite Tracker software. On reentry the elements change too much for me .... professionals can easily track it

[djf]

I heard the interview about noon on KOMO Seattle. He sounded extremely credible. If there was slight structural damage from it being struck on the left wing, and tiles started to come off, it well could have started over California, or even sooner.

[AlabamaRebel]

So like my last question.

With your math there is no way it took over 9 hours from LA to Texas.

The main report here was writen at 12:03 am. What's with the time difference?

[Joe Hadenuf]

Dang, I missed that interview......But I must say, his words did sound very credible......

[TLBSHOW]

they put in am instead of pm is my guess a web site problem.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Bttt......And they will determine, without a doubt where the spacecraft started breaking up. I personally believe this guys account, given his background, etc.

[Ravenstar]

It is about 900 seconds from California to Texas via Space Shuttle in that time frame. There were only 900 seconds left to the flight when we lost telemetry. If the debris were small at first reentry would probably consume them. Please Pray for all the families involved there are a great many more than just the Astronauts and all who touched their lives are devastated at this time. Yet we must find the reason, fix it and go on.

Ravenstar

[don-o]

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.

End of discussion.

A downside of the instant information available, is that all sorts of silliness gets broadcast, like this.

[Ravenstar]

I am sorry USABLUE but you are wrong this was not an act of terrorism. It was at 38 miles up when it began to break up. The Chi Comms would not start a war that way they are already having too much success importing all our manufacturing Business and exporting the goods to provide funds for their own nuclear program. You do not do such a thing until you have clear superiority and they are about 5 years away from equality. It would be 50 years if not for the Sick Willie previous president.

Ravenstar

[Chesterbelloc]

When it lands in California it has already bled off much of its speed before landing. Since it was landing it Florida this time it was still traveling very fast through the atmosphere when it passed over California - lots of friction, so lots of heat.

BTW, at the press conference it was obvious that the NASA guys thought they were talking about the observatory in Hawaii, but the Owens Valley is just over to the east side of Sierra. I think that's the Long Tom area and we feel their earthquakes here at my home sometimes. So they would have seen the shuttle after 5:53 which would have been after sensor problems so maybe he did see something that wasn't plasma. If he did actually see something it must not have been something noticed onboard because they were still in contact with the shuttle for a few more minutes.

[TLBSHOW]

No matter what, something was wrong over California and a freeper saw it on fire over Las Vegas. What ever happend, if it just keep burning on re entry but made it to Teaxs where it just exploded or something else. I don't know. But at 9:03 eastern thread time here something was already wrong.

[Robert_Paulson2]

so you think they used a particle beam to hit the shuttle's underbelly on it's dissent at 230 thousand feet traveling fifteen times the speed of sound... and did this on their first shot? -hmmmnnn. I don't think I would buy that.

I always suspect foul play, but rather suspect an rag head sympathizer might have contaminated a few of the heat-shield-tiles prior to takeoff...

fwiw... this one did have an important military satellite, and taking out the shuttle would have been a priority BEFORE it deployed, more than it would be after...

[TLBSHOW]

make that at least 5 minutes before 9:03 as the poster had to post after he saw it.

[Lady Jag]

15 minutes from California to Texas? I suppose that's reasonable. What about viewing time from the ground? What was its altitude? Do we have a mathematician who can triangulate this thing and tell us how far apart two people could be and see the exact same moment in the sky?

[StolarStorm]

no. I'd rather blame this on them... but no... it would be beyond their ability. This was a horrible accident, not an attack.

[socal_parrot]

As I said earlier, NASA first noticed the problem at 8:53 Eastern. The shuttle was over California at that time.

[Ravenstar]

My bachelors degree was Math but I really am not yet in the mood to do that calculation. At the Texas point is when I was told they were 38 miles up.

Ravenstar

[ApesForEvolution]

I'm trying to go with you here on this, but what did the Chicomms do? Are you saying that a report of flashes weren't created by the shuttle but rather they were flashes from a Chicomm weapon, a laser or something? Give me a little more to work with here and why you posit this...

[leadpenny]

If you survive February without being suspended or banned, I'll buy ya a beer.