From NASA engineering film: Sequential pix of debris hitting Columbia's wing

NASA via CNN Online & Yahoo News ^ | 2/3/03 | Wolfstar

[Wolfstar]

Released Monday morning, a high-speed NASA engineering film shows a piece of debris falling from the large external tank on the space shuttle Columbia's liftoff and hitting the orbiter's left wing. Bear in mind that these are extreme close-ups of a high-speed event. In the top couple of photos, you see only the top of the broken-off piece. Most of it is in the shadows. Depending on which clip you see and how slowly it is run, to the uninitiated person's eye, it can look either like the debris strikes the wing hard enough to pulverize the debris, or the debris strikes a glancing blow and bounces off in the direction of the main and booster engine exhaust.

[demlosers]

I don't know about the veracity of the photo. It's most likely bogus.

[Karsus]

Well the part of "nothing NASA could do, don't people get?" that I don't get is that NASA didn't even try.

[Jhoffa_]

..and is ejected at about a 35-45 degree angle..

That's what got me.. It looked really "heavy" leaving the wing..

For all I know there was added mass leaving the wing that would account for this.

[DoughtyOne]

Tom, take a look at the official photographs of the crew and get back to me okay? They could have gotten suits in to them.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yep. That picture is nearly a plan-view. I've heard it reported that none of the astronauts did any spacewalks on this trip (and none of them were even trained to do so). So how would they get a pic of the wing at this angle? Yep, it's a fake.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Yeah OK and the white thing is the newspaper delivered to the green space craft. I am no rocket scientist but this looks as fake as Dolly Parton's boobs.

[Howlin]

I guess you didn't see the press conference today, did you?

They discussed this WITH the crew and their whole enginerring team the very next day, and by the 24th, using all the databases they had and all the scenarios they could think of, they decided it was not a risk.

Do you think NASA knew this was going to happen and decided to keep the crew in the dark?

I cannot even believe you would insinuate that the people at NASA might let their friends die.

[Atlas Sneezed]

""THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO.""

"I think this statement is asburd. I'm positive that the 7 people on board would have been full of ideas had they known of their predicament."

I agree. Why not at least make an EFFORT to save the crew? We don't know all the facts yet, but I won't be surprised if NASA should have known of the danger, but crossed their fingers that it wouldn't be a problem (just like caused the Challenger disaster), instead of addressing the problem the best they could (such as by a rescue launch from another shuttle.)

[Jhoffa_]

If they toss double checks to the wind, they can prep a shuttle in one week.

[Howlin]

How. Exactly.

[DoughtyOne]

As I said, I lean towards hoax here too. However, I'm not going to blindly dismiss it until I see it dismissed by people who know more than I do.

If this actually did, and I'm not sure it did, appear in an Israeli paper or news source, I'd like it checked out before I make a final decision.

[Jhoffa_]

Yeah OK and the white thing is the newspaper delivered to the green space craft. I am no rocket scientist but this looks as fake as Dolly Parton's boobs.

I thought that also.. Then I tried to imagine what the wing would look like without the tiles.

[Howlin]

I heard from a former mucky muck at NASA that Atlantis could be outfitted and ready to fly in one week, if they really wanted to do it. Do you have different information?

Not one other person I've seen on TV has said that.

Perhaps that is what he's a "former?"

[mhking]

Dan Goldin should be in prison.

This is a dangerous business. For all intents and purposes, this is an experimental vehicle. These are test pilots. And from time to time, test pilots die. Yes, we mourn. Yes, we play Monday Morning Quarterback.

But at the end of the day, we have to determine whether or not space is worth it. Whether the discoveries and advances are worth it.

Screaming for Dan Goldin's head; calling for the dissolution of the space program; other such draconian measures are simply wrong-headed.

We need to find the cause; fix the system. Perhaps even take this opportunity to accelerate development of the Shuttle-replacement system, whatever form that will take. What we don't need to do is to immediately don tin-foil and demand that anyone connected with NASA be burned at the stake as heretics.

[demlosers]

It was a FReeper test and ya all past with flying colors! I can't fool anybody on FR LOL!

[LenS]

You're bringing up great points -- but aren't these the same tiles that are so difficult to attach because they're so fragile to the touch? So it wouldn't require much speed on a hitting object to damage them, correct?

My problem with this is that NASA's attitude seems to be "nothing we can do, so we won't look to close at the potential problem in the hope that'll just go away."

[glock rocks]

If they toss double checks to the wind,

isn't that how we all ended up on this thread?

[P-Marlowe]

Actually I think it was a former Shuttle Pilot. It was on KFI this morning. I was driving so I didn't catch his name.

[TominPA]

"If the Shuttle was too heavy on this trip, then it must have had a lot of cargo that could have been dumped..

The Columbia NEVER went to the ISS. It was the oldest and the heaviest of the shuttles, as a result it couldn't reach the required orbit to rendeavous with the ISS. That simply wasn't an option that was available. You can't change the rules of physics.

[Howlin]

I don't mind questions at all; it's the wild speculation that is getting on everybody's nerves.

Perhaps you, too, should watch the reruns of the press conference today. Not that I think you'd believe anything they say. It's hard to be fair when you EXPECT everything they say to be a lie.

2.67 pounds of energy is what hit the wing.