NASA Press Conference LIVE THREAD

Fox, CNN, networks, NASA TV | February 2, 2003 | NASA

[snopercod]

Any time now...

[Braak]

Yah know, you're right, how's this for a theory...Burnthru occurs and knocks out wiring to flaps on Left Wing..FCS, like any computer, does what it's programmed to, trouble is, with no flaps on the left wing responding, it ends up rolling the shuttle and tearing the Shuttle apart

[Cboldt]

That piece of foam hit the TOP of the wing on take off.

Top of the wing was hot too (bond line indicator is on top of wing.) Dunno if the heat went from top to botoom, instead of bottom to top, but imagine that is possible. Plasma all over that vehicle.

[Dog]

Yes it does.....but if something is causing extra drag being placed on the left wing.......could it have just snowballed making a 57 degree banking manuver..

[Jewels1091]

The video that I saw this morning pointing to the impact site on the wing during take off was top side of the wing...they had barely cleared the tower. I don't understand what the roll over has to do with where it was hit BEFORE the roll over.

[snopercod]

Some of these questions are just idiotic Amazing how ignorant those so-called "journalists" are, isn't it?

[Fitzcarraldo]

Did the left wheel deploy prematurely? If it extended and then broke off, the left wheel would have landed much earlier, perhaps in Arizona or New Mexico. Very important to locate all pieces of that left wing and the right wing
for comparison purposes...

[fooman]

You would think that they would send in the real science reporters that could ask good questions.

[DoughtyOne]

Unmaning the space station? Good heavens, where do they get these idiots?

[Rafterman1]

"We will not leave the Space Station unmanned...we have a mission"

Thank you, sir!

[Braak]

Who is the idiot who just suggested we abandon the ISS?

[snopercod]

Did the left wheel deploy prematurely?

That could not have been the initiating event. It would have been noticed in Mission Control, not to mention the Astronauts heads slamming against the right bulkhead.

[snopercod]

Did anyone else notice the frost increasing on the tank during ascent? It seemed to start on the intertank area, then spread downward.

[HairOfTheDog]

Let your friends and co-workers get ripped apart at 12Kmph and tell me how you do in a press conference a little more than 24 hours later.

Well put.... we need to not just be insulting to these people. They have had a tough 24 hours, and they are on *our* team.

[Braak]

The press won't get off the debris thing, will they? Betcha it was another cause...

[_Jim]

If it extended and then broke off, the left wheel

This would have represented a ton of drag ... probably not what happened.

[hole_n_one]

Ron Dittemore, space shuttle program manager, left, and Robert Cabana, director, flight crew operations, preside during a NASA (news - web sites) press briefing at the the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2003. Seven astronauts perished Saturday when the shuttle Columbia broke to pieces as it re-entered the atmosphere for a landing in Florida. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

[fooman]

Yes we are asking each other better questions.

WSJ said that FR had scooped the wires by 15-20 mins yesterday.

[Karsus]

What is that mission?

It takes almost all the time that the 3 on ISS (had to stop calling it Freedom for some stupid reason) have just to keep it running. It is not like that much research is being currently done.

Just like the shuttle, ISS takes more people to run it and cost much more than projected.

[hc87]

What I got out of it was the wiring for the flaps pass THROUGH that wheel well. So, if there was a problem with heat, the computers were probably trying to correct the problem and the flaps WERE NOT getting the signals! If something DID fall off over California, it HAD to be from UNDER the wind. That piece of foam hit the TOP of the wing on take off.

Which seems to suggest that the piece of foam is a red herring and that cause of the loss is someplace else. Could it be the wheel well door? I got a sense that's what the reporter was asking whent he guy with the glasses said, in effect, "yeah that's where I'm going but I don't want to jump to conclusions and ignore another important piece of data by focusing on this." Did I hear this right?