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Imagine this scenario: A spacecraft has prior knowledge of an impending catastrophe. However, due to circumstances of time and budget, nothing can be done about the catastrophe. The inhabitants of the spacecraft know they are doomed, and time is running out. All they can hope for is luck; a fortuitous circumstance in which the damage is less than expected and somehow they manage to survive. Now imagine that the spacecraft is Earth, its inhabitants are the human population and all of the living things upon it, and the impending catastrophe is an oncoming asteroid. [From what we know now, the...

<p>On two previous flights, shuttle Columbia experienced re-entry problems similar to those that preceded its disastrous breakup Saturday, NASA records show.</p> <p>In each case, damage to heat-shielding tiles on the shuttle's underside disrupted the flow of air under Columbia's wings earlier in the re-entry process than normal. That created excessive heat and stress on the damaged area.</p>

The body of the identified Israeli astronaut (radio) The body of the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon killed Saturday during the explosion of the Columbia shuttle was identified and it will be buried the next week in Israel, announced Wednesday morning the public radio israélienne.Le Israeli ministry of Defense received information coming from the United States on the "unquestionable" identification of the body of Ilan Ramon, added the radio without giving other details. NASA launched a vast operation of research in order to clear up the mystery of the disintegration of Columbia and to find the bodies of the seven...

Looking West for Clues Feb. 4 — NASA investigators are hoping reports of wreckage from the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia out West will give them new clues into what caused the orbiter to disintegrate just before its scheduled landing, killing all seven astronauts aboard As many NASA officials took time off to mourn their fallen colleagues at a memorial service today, teams of investigators were dispatched to California and Arizona to respond to reports of pieces of the shuttle being found there. Witnesses have reported to NASA investigators that parts of Columbia began falling off Saturday morning as it flew...

On Saturday, I set three alarms for 6 in the morning. But when I turned on the television, I was puzzled by the relative silence at Mission Control. Though landing time was approaching, there was little activity. The realization dawned as slowly for me, a veteran astronaut, as for everyone else. There was no immediate or decisive announcement, only a slow recognition that a catastrophe had occurred. I didn't know these astronauts. But I know what they were doing, because I've done it. Astronauts face danger all the time. It's a job where danger is a basic assumption. But you...

No shuttle replacements seen for a decade 5 February 2003 01:40 By Chris Stetkiewicz SEATTLE, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Aviation experts believe NASA will not replace the lost space shuttle Columbia for about 10 years, sticking to a schedule that may force the agency to rely more on Russia to supply the International Space Station. Building a replica shuttle would be too costly, leaving a next-generation "orbital space plane" due to enter service around 2010 as the earliest possible relief for the remaining three shuttles, which could keep flying for decades to come, according to experts advising NASA and the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA teams headed to California and Arizona on Tuesday to check reports that bits of heat-shielding tiles or wings from the earliest moments of space shuttle Columbia's disintegration had been found. "We have had some e-mail correspondence that potentially looks like it could be either (tiles) or wing material," said Michael Kostelnik, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the shuttle and space station. "If it is wing material obviously that would be important to the investigation," Kostelnik said at a briefing at U.S. space agency headquarters. "The sources were credible enough to cause us to send a NASA...

Feb. 4, 2003 Finance Minister Shalom asks Bush to send another Israeli Astronaut to space By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF Finance Minister Silvan Shalom has asked US President Bush to consider sending another Israeli Astronaut into space as part of a NASA mission. Israel Radio reports that Bush reacted favorably to the request. Finance Minister Silvan Shalom was attending the memorial ceremony for the Columbia Astronauts in Houston as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's representative. Shalom asked President Bush to continue the cooperation between Israel and the US in the exploration of space. During the ceremony, US President Bush eulogized...

Theft of Shuttle Pieces Hard to Prevent By Craig Timberg Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 4, 2003; Page A01 NACOGDOCHES, Tex., Feb. 3 -- About 100 pieces of debris from the space shuttle Columbia are missing from unguarded sites across heavily wooded Nacogdoches County, including a piece of computer equipment that may hold clues as to why the spacecraft disintegrated as it roared over Texas Saturday morning, authorities said today. Police were visiting a private home late this afternoon in search of the computer component, but federal and local officials acknowledged there was little they could do to prevent...

<p>CANAVERAL, Fla. - A nearly 2-foot-long chunk of debris that peeled off space shuttle Columbia's external fuel tank and struck the left wing during blastoff Jan. 16 is the most likely cause of the calamity that destroyed the shuttle and killed all seven astronauts, NASA officials said Monday.</p>

Massive hunt turns up nose cone but doesn't omit tiniest fragments 02/04/2003 By LEE HANCOCK and TODD BENSMAN / The Dallas Morning News NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The unparalleled scavenger hunt for remnants of the crumbled Columbia expanded and intensified Monday as the first physical clues of the space shuttle's disintegration over Texas were delivered to federal investigators. At Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La., some human remains arrived Monday after an honor guard met two caskets holding other remains Sunday. "We're being respectful and honorable with the remains that have been, and will be, brought here in the...

Searching for answers NASA says it may have taken liftoff damage too lightly 02/04/2003 By BRUCE NICHOLS / The Dallas Morning News HOUSTON - Space agency officials said Monday that they might have underestimated the damage caused to shuttle Columbia when debris fell from the external tank shortly after launch and struck the left wing. "We're completely redoing the analysis from scratch. ... We want to know if we made any mistakes," said Ron Dittemore, shuttle program director. The piece of insulation that fell off the shuttle's giant external tank 81 seconds after launch is estimated to have been...

(CBS) The investigation into the disaster that killed all seven astronauts aboard the shuttle Columbia is just starting, but already there are serious concerns being raised about whether the loss was a freak occurrence or accident waiting to happen. 60 Minutes Correspondent Ed Bradley reports an aerospace advisory panel told Congress last year that the repeated postponement of safety upgrades inevitably increased risks of operating the space shuttle. The panel at that time claimed that NASA's approach to safety was planting the seeds for future danger. Marcia Smith, senior analyst for space policy research for the U.S. Congress, says some...

California photos appear to show start of disintegrationLos Angeles Daily News LOS ANGELES - To help with their investigation, NASA officials have asked for and received photographs of what may be the space shuttle Columbia starting to disintegrate as it flew over California early Saturday. NASA officials asked Daily News photographer Gene Blevins and aerospace photographer William Hartenstein on Sunday for copies of photographs they took of the Columbia on Saturday morning as it passed over the Owens Valley in California. It disintegrated minutes later over Texas. One of Blevins' Owens Valley photos of Columbia was published Sunday in the...

Sacked safety experts turn on Nasa over cuts Recriminations mounted yesterday after it was revealed that Nasa ignored repeated warnings about the safety of the shuttle programme from its own advisers and tried to suppress their criticisms by sacking some of them. In the 12 months before Saturday's disaster, Nasa's Aerospace Safety Advisory Board warned several times that budget pressures meant safety upgrades and improvements were not being done. Nasa responded by firing five of the nine-member panel and another resigned in disgust. Richard Blomberg, chairman of the panel which is made of experts from industry and academia, told Congress...

A committee of top space experts advised NASA six years ago to install equipment to detect and repair damage like that suspected of downing Columbia Saturday -- but the agency did not act on the advice. The recommendation, part of a report presented to NASA in 1997 that studied the impact of debris and meteoroids during space flight, is among a mound of studies that have expressed concern over risks at the budget-plagued shuttle program in recent years.... The National Academies' report chillingly notes that recommended detection and repair capability "could be very useful because many of the orbiter's potential...

Armed with 8 weeks of on the job experience, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe appeared before the House Science Committee [ hearing charter] this week to discuss NASA's FY 2003 Budget. O'Keefe faced a committee still inclined to give a newcomer the benefit of the doubt - but at the same time, not at all shy about making their views known... ...O'Keefe then addressed a "handful of initiatives in the FY 2003 budget" that he was pursuing: The first initiative is "a vigorous, aggressive implementation of the President's management agenda. There are 5 items within this plan that apply to all...

PIONEERS of the space race yesterday paid tribute to the crew of Columbia and called for their work to continue, as US President George W. Bush announced he would attend a NASA memorial service tomorrow in Houston, Texas, for the seven men and women who died. "It's a horrible thing to have happen, and our thoughts go out to the crew's family and friends," said former senator John Glenn, the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962. "It's important to remember we're not up there to just joyride around, we are up there to do things on Earth."...

Respond to this Article April 1980 Beam Me Out Of This Death Trap, Scotty 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Goodbye, Columbia By Gregg Easterbrook This April 1980 Washington Monthly cover story on the problems and progress of NASA's space shuttle program was written one year before Columbia's first launch in 1981. To view a larger image of the original cover, click here. The most expensive flying machine ever constructed sputtered and smacked through the low waves, kicking up spray, straining mightily to take flight. It had been bobbing by the dock in Long Beach...