Posted on 02/02/2003 6:35:58 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Yeah, it was big. If it was ice, then it was massive.
Or are you afraid to?
Why would the left wing overheat if the tiles were intact?
It seems to me that they COULD have done something about it!
They could have:
(1) NOT left the earth's atmosphere in the first place, scratched the mission and headed back for home
(2) Gone on the mission, but NOT reentered the earth's atmosphere until (3) and (4) were done
(3) Instead, gone to the Space Station and tethered Colombia until a space walk could be done---now or on another Shuttle Flight
(4) Do a space walk to VISUALLY EXAMINE the entire craft, particularly the left wing (and underneath it), and REPAIR the damage (now if posible or later if necessary)
(5) Ride down on the Russian Soyeus (sp?) that was coming up to the Space Station on either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday to get back to earth and pick up needed parts for repairs
(6) Send another large crew back up in another Shuttle to do the repairs and fly both the new Shuttle and the Colombia home
After seeing on the local news how UTTERLY FRAGILE and BRITTLE the black heat-shield covering is which covers the HIGHLY FLAMMABLE STYOFOAM, it is INCONCEIVABLE that NASA would NOT assume the black heat shield would LIKELY be damaged and UNSAFE!!!
I don't care if that turns out NOT to be the cause of the problem (although I would be extremely surprised if if didn't have something to do with it)---NASA SHOULD NEVER HAVE ASSUMED THERE WAS NO DAMAGE TO THE EXTREMELY FRAGILE AND BRITTLE HEAT-SHIELD WITHOUT VISUALLY EXAMINING IT WITH A SPACE WALK---NOW OR ON ANOTHER SHUTTLE FLIGHT!!!
Also, NASA needs to IMMEDIATELY find a heat-resistant substance that is not nearly so FRAGILE and BRITTLE!
BTW, the fact that the "Go ahead" guy took sooooooo long to give them the "Go ahead"---literally at the last second---could very easily have contributed to the problem because it meant that Colombia had LESS TIME to start SLOWING DOWN.
David Finfrock (KXAS-NBC-DFW) noticed that Colombia was TWO MINUTES EARLY when it crossed the DFW area (8:01 AM CST instead of 8:03 AM CST)---i.e. possibly GOING TOO FAST. Being TWO MINUTES OFF on a Space Shuttle is a LOT of time!
It seems to me that they COULD have done something about it!
They could have:
(1) NOT left the earth's atmosphere in the first place, scratched the mission and headed back for home
(2) Gone on the mission, but NOT reentered the earth's atmosphere until (3) and (4) were done
(3) Instead, gone to the Space Station and tethered Colombia until a space walk could be done---now or on another Shuttle Flight
(4) Do a space walk to VISUALLY EXAMINE the entire craft, particularly the left wing (and underneath it), and REPAIR the damage (now if posible or later if necessary)
(5) Ride down on the Russian Soyeus (sp?) that was coming up to the Space Station on either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday to get back to earth and pick up needed parts for repairs
(6) Send another large crew back up in another Shuttle to do the repairs and fly both the new Shuttle and the Colombia home
After seeing on the local news how UTTERLY FRAGILE and BRITTLE the black heat-shield covering is which covers the HIGHLY FLAMMABLE STYOFOAM, it is INCONCEIVABLE that NASA would NOT assume the black heat shield would LIKELY be damaged and UNSAFE!!!
I don't care if that turns out NOT to be the cause of the problem (although I would be extremely surprised if if didn't have something to do with it)---NASA SHOULD NEVER HAVE ASSUMED THERE WAS NO DAMAGE TO THE EXTREMELY FRAGILE AND BRITTLE HEAT-SHIELD WITHOUT VISUALLY EXAMINING IT WITH A SPACE WALK---NOW OR ON ANOTHER SHUTTLE FLIGHT!!!
Also, NASA needs to IMMEDIATELY find a heat-resistant substance that is not nearly so FRAGILE and BRITTLE!
BTW, the fact that the "Go ahead" guy took sooooooo long to give them the "Go ahead"---literally at the last second---could very easily have contributed to the problem because it meant that Colombia had LESS TIME to start SLOWING DOWN.
David Finfrock (KXAS-NBC-DFW) noticed that Colombia was TWO MINUTES EARLY when it crossed the DFW area (8:01 AM CST instead of 8:03 AM CST)---i.e. possibly GOING TOO FAST. Being TWO MINUTES OFF on a Space Shuttle is a LOT of time!
"Why would the left wing overheat if the tiles were intact?"
Look, I don't pretend to be a rocket scientist, nor to I "speculate" like some of "mankind" seems to do before I have more facts. I do try to weed out some of the Barbra Streisand that I see and hear. There are many who seem to want to talk about seeing "tiles falling" and "events happenning" over California and Las Vegas etc. I'm watching ALL that, very curiously....
Not to be argumentive but I don't belive that. The shuttle was descending. The point of maximum heat stress in a normal descent would've been over Texas. I think the force of the atmosphere caused the damaged tiles to cause other tiles to come off over California. Then at maximum heat stress over Texas burn through occurred.
BTW, I don't trust ANY of the pictures we've seen so far.
If that video showing the left wing impact was shown before the tragedy, then I would guess it's trustworthy.
Hmmm. The way it sprayed, it looked brittle like ice. We'll have to see.
I bet you're so excited, aren't you? I bet your hands are tingling. Have you been to DU and told them how "right" you are? I bet those "rats" will really think you're something now, won't they?
You can ride from thread to thread, claiming YOU warned us all. You're such a hero!
Can you possibly believe that you are the ONLY person here on FR figured out that a RAG like the New York Times would run with a story that would bash George W. Bush?
Are you that out of touch with what the rest of us here KNOW?
Not one person here didn't realize somebody was going to try to tar Bush with it. What we were so upset about is how HAPPY you seemed to be to FIND ANYTHING to smear Bush with, as usual.
And it's not going to be "heating up." It's a non-story about a man who didn't even complain about the things involved with this accident!
I wonder when they're going to release these pictures.
Back that up with PROOF or forever be known as a faker.
I thought the same thing as soon as I heard there was an Israeli on board.
However, because of the TV demonstration of the EXTREME FRAGILE and BRITTLE nature of the black heat-shield coating on the styrofoam and the object which apparently hit the left wing's black heat-shield coating, I now lean more toward the heat-shield damage theory. With styrofoam under the heat-shield coating, there is NOTHING to really support the coating if it is even lightly hit---it gets punctured!
I don't think that it's much of a stretch to look at NASA's evidence that the left wing was overheating and had more drag than the right wing to speculate that there were damaged tiles.
Actually, at the moment they broke up there were, in fact, at the maxium point of descent.
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