Skip to comments.
Columbia Was Beyond Any Help, Officials Say
New York Times ^
| 2/03/03
| KENNETH CHANG
Posted on 02/03/2003 9:34:25 PM PST by kattracks
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80 ... 261-277 next last
To: John Jamieson
Thank you for your service to our country and to mankind ...... and for your voice of reason on these threads.
41
posted on
02/03/2003 10:15:42 PM PST
by
kayak
(God bless President Bush, God bless our military, and God bless America!)
To: Fred Mertz
I just finished watching the O'Reilly tape and he said he called Dons house and his wife said he didn't want to talk about it. He is in mourning. I say he is very depressed. He knows he tried to stop it from ever going up.
O'Reilly said he should come out from under the bed because he wants answers. He wants to know what is going on as does NASAWATCH.COM.......
42
posted on
02/03/2003 10:15:49 PM PST
by
TLBSHOW
(God Speed as Angels trending upward dare to fly Tribute to the Risk Takers)
To: Chad Fairbanks
I find it an excuse for not sending an astronaut outside to at least look at the ship! There is so much crap/debris floating in orbit that can hit/damage the ship, I cannot believe that a visual pre-entry inspection of the hull is not part of those 7000, systems checks prior to re-entry. They walk around on it to fix antenae, camera's, mirrors, panels, collectors, arms, and such....Why all the sudden would looking at the one physical condition on the shuttle that keeps you alive on re-entry over all others be an execise of futility and potentially damage the ship?
43
posted on
02/03/2003 10:17:32 PM PST
by
blackdog
(People are not sheep. Sheep are superior by far.)
To: Chad Fairbanks
Orbiter couldn't get to ISS. Not disputed.
Orbiter not fitted to dock with ISS.
Not disputed.
Soyuz fitted to dock with ISS
Correct but irrelevant in my scenario (assuming that Soyuz doesn't have enough delta-v to make it to the orbiter anyway).
44
posted on
02/03/2003 10:17:41 PM PST
by
strela
(If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you oughta go back home and crawl under your bed.)
To: TLBSHOW
He is in mourning. I say he is very depressed. He knows he tried to stop it from ever going up.Well, I'm glad that YO know what Don is feeling better than Don does...
45
posted on
02/03/2003 10:17:53 PM PST
by
Chad Fairbanks
('I WISH, at some point, that you would address those damned armadillos in your trousers." - JustShe)
To: TLBSHOW
Maybe the powers to be got to Don Nelson. I think his letter speaks for itself, in case they try to off him. It's an insurance policy, therefore he's untouchable. But they might muzzle him.
To: strela
If the Soyuz is fitted to dock with the ISS, how could it dock with the Columbia, which ISN'T fitted in a matching manner? I'd say that's relevent... :0)
47
posted on
02/03/2003 10:19:03 PM PST
by
Chad Fairbanks
('I WISH, at some point, that you would address those damned armadillos in your trousers." - JustShe)
To: stripes1776
That's quite an indictment. I hope none of those guys are FReepers who will see you impugn their character.
I've never flown a shuttle mission and I've never slept at a Holiday Inn Express, but I did do 7 1/2 years of sea duty on submarines; another job that has a meticulous QA process and demands attention to detail.
And you know what? Despite all the checks and balances, all the policies and procedures; stuff leaked. A worn ball valve here, a leaky flange there. Drips and dribbles of seawater, hydraulic oil and DFM all over the place. Air leaks from reducers and needle valves.
Point is; you take each individual drip, dripple and hiss, fix the ones that are saftety of ship issues and deal with the rest. Sometimes it's a guessing game. I was lucky - most of the time we guessed right and when we guessed wrong nobody died. The guys on USS Bonefish guessed wrong and I lost a close friend and two other shipmates. It always comes down to the human factor. We're all imperfect, like our inventions. We just do the absolute best we can.
Give these guys a break.
To: kattracks
Some real facts
Landing weight of sts107 = 232788 (from another freeper)
sts96 = 219890
sts98 = 198909
Unless there has been a heavier reentry I couldn't find, STS107 was subjected to about 6% more heat load than any other Shuttle in the history of the program. Other Shuttle flights may have been far more tolerant of any tile damage than this one.
Jan 16th was perfect for ice formation, low 40s 100%RH.
To: SierraWasp
Do you really expect them to come out and say there were things that could have been done, but they just didn't do them?
This is damage control, nothing more.
50
posted on
02/03/2003 10:20:10 PM PST
by
Rome2000
To: Chad Fairbanks
I have not been following the story closely, no. They had no EVA capability? That strikes me as a major safety violation right there.
I had no idea they ever went up without the ability to do an EVA in the event of an emergency.
51
posted on
02/03/2003 10:20:59 PM PST
by
beckett
To: beckett
They only have EVA when it's required as part of the mission. This was a science/experiment mission, not an EVA mission (such as working on the ISS, etc...)
52
posted on
02/03/2003 10:22:21 PM PST
by
Chad Fairbanks
('I WISH, at some point, that you would address those damned armadillos in your trousers." - JustShe)
To: John H K
"Obviously, that's one (unrealistic) extreme. But to accomodate the various fixes recommended in this thread (All flights being able to reach the ISS, having a shuttle always ready to make a rescue flight, etc.) SERIOUSLY degrade the ability of the Shuttle to do useful things, and also likely cost vastly more money. There's a balance point you try to reach but there's no obvious guidlines to find where it is."
AND if you did take all those precautions, it would be the one you didn't think of or take that bit you.
53
posted on
02/03/2003 10:22:47 PM PST
by
Let's Roll
(Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.)
To: Chad Fairbanks
I agree we should not stop the program but in this case there is major problems with NASA and if it was doomed from the start then it should not of started. Until there was a way out of the shuttle for these people. One of them used to live near me and the family is still local, this is being felt right where I live. There was no reason any of them had to die, not with the warning.
http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2003/02/03/shuttlelo.html
54
posted on
02/03/2003 10:23:42 PM PST
by
TLBSHOW
(God Speed as Angels trending upward dare to fly Tribute to the Risk Takers)
To: John H K
I am aware they didn't know the foam had fallen off until they reviewed the film the next day. It makes my point that they can't in every instance have a perfect takeoff, which they need, because they don't have a back up system to retrieve the astronauts.
55
posted on
02/03/2003 10:24:42 PM PST
by
Balata
To: kayak
Wow, I hope I can live up to that!
Actually, I have been quite critical of NASA's low goals, but not the engineers (including Ron Dittemore) that I respect so much.
To: TLBSHOW
"The Warning"?????? It wasn't very specific... "Someday we may have a catestrophic shuttle disaster" WOW! What a warning! I mean, 'No s**t, Sherlock!' odds were in favor of that happening someday... That would be like me saying, "Ya know, sometime this year there will be an airline crash... "
57
posted on
02/03/2003 10:25:54 PM PST
by
Chad Fairbanks
('I WISH, at some point, that you would address those damned armadillos in your trousers." - JustShe)
To: John Jamieson
I respect and agree with your opinion of the enormity of tile failure. But don't those involved in the mission and the people in support have the absolute right to know the condition of their ship? These are the most highly trained professionals in the world. I am sure that given the choice, they would rather know the true condition of the craft. Or perhaps they were completely aware of their potential problem and we the public just don't know that?
58
posted on
02/03/2003 10:26:39 PM PST
by
blackdog
(People are not sheep. Sheep are superior by far.)
To: Chad Fairbanks
If the Soyuz is fitted to dock with the ISS, how could it dock with the Columbia, which ISN'T fitted in a matching manner? That's new information that hadn't been brought out in this thread yet (your contention that Soyuz can't dock with Columbia). I said nothing about docking with Columbia in my original post; my idea would have been to transfer Columbia personnel in suits or those spiffy rescue bubbles I heard about years ago (but they probably didn't have aboard Columbia either) out Columbia's rear airlock to Soyuz. Soyuz couldn't get to Columbia to begin with, so its irrelevant and this discussion is pointless.
59
posted on
02/03/2003 10:27:14 PM PST
by
strela
(If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you oughta go back home and crawl under your bed.)
To: TLBSHOW
I thjnk O'Reilly called Dan Goldin's house, not Don Nelson. Goldin was the previous NASA Administrator. They were talking about his bad management of NASA.
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80 ... 261-277 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson