[SLB]

Interesting. This is the first I have seen or heard of this. Nothing on the TV news.

[happygrl]

BUMP!

[tm22721]

It came up during the NASA news conference yesterday but was discounted by one NASA expert as being the hot plama which is normally seen trailing the shuttle on re-entry.

BUMP

[snopercod]

Astronomer saw shuttle apparently in trouble over California

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Anything coming out of California, whether or not from an Australian, is suspect.
These people think socialism works and that disarming law abiding citizens ends gun crime.
Enough said.
Cripes, I give Nevada more clout...

[thinking]

If tiles were falling off, they will have an infrared signature and specialized satellites would confirm the observation...

[leadpenny]

FYI

[Archangelsk]

This gives more credibility to the idea that something affected the longitudinal stability that the shuttle needs for a successful re-entry. If something did happen in that vain, then dampening out, or correcting, the error (considering the forces at work) would overwhelm the onboard systems.

Since the shuttle is a fly-by-wire vehicle with an integrated glass cockpit, I suspect a lot of attention will be focused on the software in addition to the hardware.

(Pinging Magnum for his input).

[Kevin Curry]

There apparently is amateur video footage taken from the vicinity of St. George, Utah, just northeast of Las Vegas, that also shows glowing debris trailing Challenger.

[RckyRaCoCo]

I remember the earlier landings the first image of the shuttle coming in was using an infrared video(just showed the heated outline of the tiles below the shuttle but showed the entire surface below).

How far into the re-entry\landing process were these cameras able to pick up the heat signatures of the shuttle and is it possible some independent astronomer could have had a similar infrared telescope fixed on the shuttle at the time and perhaps could have viewed a wing separation, etc. with it?

Just a thought.

[TLBSHOW]

Then you missed this thread yesterday!


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834060/posts?page=256#256

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I saw Anthony Beasley´s interview yesterday on ABC. His explanation was extremely believable. He referred to the tile loses as the “zipper effect.” Once the first tile dislodged, the rest followed like unzipping a zipper.

Another surprise I got was from one of the NASA panel members (I don’t recall which one). I hadn’t realized the object that fell off the shuttle and struck the left wing as the Columbia was lifting off was the size of a door. In my mind’s eye, it was something small and insignificant.

[wasp69]

bttt