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4wheeldrift
02-01-2003, 08:59 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/01/shuttle.landing.ap/index.html

method
02-01-2003, 09:27 AM
my mom woke me up to tell me to come watch the news... the thing just exploded. I mean they're 200,000 feet up and going mach 6.

eludeu
02-01-2003, 10:49 AM
From www.nasa.gov

"Communication and tracking of the shuttle was lost at 9 a.m. EST at an altitude of about 203,000 feet in the area above north central Texas. At the time communications were lost. The shuttle was traveling approximately 12,500 miles per hour (Mach 18). No communication and tracking information were received in Mission Control after that time".

4wheeldrift
02-01-2003, 10:51 AM
The shuttle broke up on re-entry, its all over CNN right now.

civic_stylez
02-01-2003, 11:11 AM
thats sad, that ship was built in 1981 tho! most cars built in '81 dont run that well i dont know if id trust a space ship doin mach 6. there showing the people that were on the ship on the news. feel really bad for their families.

van
02-01-2003, 11:42 AM
...gone! just like that! I'm watching it on the news right now.. Nasalost communications with the shuttle..next thing you know its disintegrating over texas or whatever.. man thats nuts

Melinda
02-01-2003, 11:47 AM
Yeah, all 7 astronauts on board died...my mom said something to the effect of "if 7 people died in a car accident, there would be a small little article in the paper, but because its space, we'll hear about it for years." I think that its bigger then just 7 people dying, this is a fuck up for the whole US space dept.

Scarry stuff to wake up to, all the american channels are covering it just like they did for sept 11

Melinda

van
02-01-2003, 11:48 AM
Originally posted by Melinda
Yeah, all 7 astronauts on board died...my mom said something to the effect of "if 7 people died in a car accident, there would be a small little article in the paper, but because its space, we'll hear about it for years." I think that its bigger then just 7 people dying, this is a fuck up for the whole US space dept.

Scarry stuff to wake up to, all the american channels are covering it just like they did for sept 11

Melinda


Also the white house stated it's not an act of terrorism. Yes this is far bigger than just 7 people dying. This is some very big error that has an unknown cause.

That's freaky.

I haven't even slept yet, I wonder why, maybe cause this stuff was happening so I couldn't sleep!

method
02-01-2003, 11:51 AM
yeah but imagine completely rebuilding a car every year that you drive it.

Stratus_Power
02-01-2003, 11:57 AM
yeh but you cant really compare a car w/ a spcae shuttle. i heard some parts of the new international space station is running on 486 computers

Ben
02-01-2003, 12:09 PM
not many cas cost several billion dollars, thats a shame, and after such a week of history. Appollo 1 had a fire on launch, killed 3 on the 27th of jan years back, and Challenger bley up on the 28t of Jan in the 80's, and now this so many years later, pretty damn good track record! Regards for everyone related with those involved!

kaput
02-01-2003, 12:26 PM
.

GTS Jeff
02-01-2003, 12:31 PM
Originally posted by Melinda
Yeah, all 7 astronauts on board died...my mom said something to the effect of "if 7 people died in a car accident, there would be a small little article in the paper, but because its space, we'll hear about it for years." I think that its bigger then just 7 people dying, this is a fuck up for the whole US space dept.

Scarry stuff to wake up to, all the american channels are covering it just like they did for sept 11

Melinda i think the reason that this is is so big is not because of the seven lives lost, but because this represents a huge blow to something that a lot of people have pride in.

4wheeldrift
02-01-2003, 12:40 PM
Originally posted by Benny
not many cas cost several billion dollars, thats a shame, and after such a week of history. Appollo 1 had a fire on launch, killed 3 on the 27th of jan years back, and Challenger bley up on the 28t of Jan in the 80's, and now this so many years later, pretty damn good track record! Regards for everyone related with those involved!

The Star Road"
(Words by Mercedes Lackey, Music: "Ballad of Springhill")

When you sing of Columbia or the Eagle
And reach for the stars as your ultimate goal.
Recall who fell along the way,
For the star road takes a fearful toll,
The star road takes a fearful toll.

And it might have been Armstrong, Aldrin, Cernan,
Shepard, Carpenter, Cooper, of Glenn.
They all knew well the questor's fee,
And the star-road's paved with the lives of men,
The star road's paved with the lives of men.

For the price was paid on a winter evening
When "Fire in the spacecraft!" somebody said.
In smoke and flame, the shadow passed
And in Capsule Twelve three men were dead.
In Capsule Twelve three men were dead.

Forget not yet who paid the forfeit
To conquer the stars in the Eagle's flight.
"It's worth the price," they said who paid:
Grissom, Chaffee, and Edward White.
Grissom, Chaffee, and Edward White.

Ben
02-01-2003, 12:41 PM
Originally posted by kaput
The communication loss was normal due to the ions in the atmosphere which were surrounding the shuttle during re-entry. I think they cause too much interference or something. It happens while the time the shuttle looks like a big fireball because of friction with all the ions.

If you had been listening to what is on the news lately, they played the last transmission from the space shuttle, they were talking to Houston about tire pressure, and all of a sudden the transfer went dead. Houston knows nopt to discuss things like ship status while the craft is going out of radio contact. So it looks like it was something that was sudden and definatly not expected.

4wheeldrift
02-01-2003, 12:43 PM
Originally posted by Melinda
Yeah, all 7 astronauts on board died...my mom said something to the effect of "if 7 people died in a car accident, there would be a small little article in the paper, but because its space, we'll hear about it for years." I think that its bigger then just 7 people dying, this is a fuck up for the whole US space dept.

Scarry stuff to wake up to, all the american channels are covering it just like they did for sept 11

Melinda Its a tragedy of a more symbolic nature than anything. Work that was going on on that mission had the potential to have a great impact on our understanding of how things work, and space is one of the last things to be explored. It's like benny said, its not a big loss because of the loss of life (more than 7 people die from one cause or another every single day). Its a lost because of what the shuttle, and space research in general represents.

kaput
02-01-2003, 12:46 PM
.

bol
02-01-2003, 12:47 PM
// start of bad joke

it's raining men!

// end of bad joke

Hipermax_d
02-01-2003, 01:11 PM
i feel sorry for them
watching the news, its really sad

what i cant believe is that they blamed it on terrorism. i cant believe it. the first thing they blame is terrorism

GTS Jeff
02-01-2003, 01:12 PM
Originally posted by 4wheeldrift
Its a tragedy of a more symbolic nature than anything. Work that was going on on that mission had the potential to have a great impact on our understanding of how things work, and space is one of the last things to be explored. It's like benny said, its not a big loss because of the loss of life (more than 7 people die from one cause or another every single day). Its a lost because of what the shuttle, and space research in general represents. that was me :guns:

4wheeldrift
02-01-2003, 02:04 PM
Originally posted by Jeff TYPE R
that was me :guns: Bad Warren, learn how to read *slaps himself* :D Sorry

Zephyr
02-01-2003, 02:27 PM
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/images/DS.p19r0/SI.kshv/latest.gif

radar image of all the debris

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/latest/DS.p19r0/si.kshv.shtml

Hakkola
02-01-2003, 02:57 PM
Wow, this is crazy and unexpected, I hadn't heard anything about this til' now, there's something live on cbc newsworld right now, crazy.

I think it's big news because honestly news isn't anything but entertainment, they publicize it because honestly what would you rather hear about, a car crash or an expensive peace of space exploration equipment? Of course it's gonna be big news and it has hardly anything to do with how many people died, if it was only 2 people it'd be the same. Fact of the matter is, nobody really cares if Joe Blow gets in a car accident, astronauts are in the public eye and millions of people know the names of all the people on the shuttle. Of course all the occupants are gonna die when a spaceship gets torn apart at 200 000 ft high, there's probably nothing left of them because of the intense heat.

I don't really know exactly what happened but it's a sad thing to see, I feel bad for the families who lost someone close to them.

kevie88
02-01-2003, 03:23 PM
When this shuttle mission took off I remarked to a co-worker that they were doomed.. I just knew.
I remember seeing Columbia's first flight as an 8 year old child, and being mesmerised.. That ship was as much alive to me as the people on board.
All the best to the families of the victims.

sexualbanana
02-01-2003, 04:49 PM
Originally posted by civic_stylez
thats sad, that ship was built in 1981 tho! most cars built in '81 dont run that well i dont know if id trust a space ship doin mach 6.

that ship had a life span of 100 missions. it was on it's 21st.



Originally posted by Hipermax_d
what i cant believe is that they blamed it on terrorism. i cant believe it. the first thing they blame is terrorism

have u been watching the news for the past year and a half? everyone's first thought of cause goes to terrorism now. but it's completely obvious they had nothing to do with it though.

EDIT: besides, the white house has said it wasn't terrorism

Stratus_Power
02-01-2003, 05:15 PM
what can the terriost do to a space ship going at Mach 18 :P

lammer
02-01-2003, 05:29 PM
is it true or is it a hoax that the US have landed on the moon before.
I've heard people say that its a hoax and they lied about landing on the moon, others say its true..

Glowrider
02-01-2003, 05:36 PM
is it true or is it a hoax that the US have landed on the moon before.

Go ask Buzz Alderin (sp?) that same question. Then you and the reporter that he knocked out for asking that same question, can start a club. "People knocked out by Buzz".

lammer
02-01-2003, 05:54 PM
Originally posted by Glowrider


Go ask Buzz Alderin (sp?) that same question. Then you and the reporter that he knocked out for asking that same question, can start a club. "People knocked out by Buzz".

why is he so hostile towards a legitiment question? if it were so true, why would he need to punch people?

4wheeldrift
02-01-2003, 05:57 PM
Originally posted by lammer


why is he so hostile towards a legitiment question? if it were so true, why would he need to punch people? I think Mr. Alderin has very little tolerance for people who would have the gall to ask that, considering he lived through it.

Glowrider
02-01-2003, 05:58 PM
Because that mission was a bench mark in the history of humans on this planet. Asking a question like that shows nothing but straight forward disrespect, towards people who risk their lives in order to further the advancement of the human race. It is NOT a legitimate question. It's a question trumped up by people who have no lives and sit around formulating conspiracy theories all day.

If I were him, I'd knock the reporter out, too.

three.eighteen.
02-01-2003, 08:50 PM
Originally posted by Glowrider
If I were him, I'd knock the reporter out, too.

:werd:

Ajay
02-01-2003, 10:58 PM
It's a very sad thing that happened but the sadder thing is there's absolutely no way of saving those people. While I don't agree with them saying it was a possible terrorist attack because there was an Israeli astronaut on board I can see where they be coming from after September 11.

The frontier of space is something that everyone wonders about which is why this is such a big deal, not just cause of the experiements they were doing it's just the fact that very few people get to go into space and those people that go into space are a lucky few. Is this gonna end the space program? No I don't think so at all.

But I'm pretty sure the United States landed on the moon, and if I was Buzz Aldrin I would have done more than knock out that cocky motherfucker that even had the nerve to ask that kind of question. Pride in the US space program was even more apparent back in the 1960's because they were always in competition with the Soviets. The fact that two humans stepped literally on another world is mesmerizing!

Glowrider
02-01-2003, 11:02 PM
I don't agree with them saying it was a possible terrorist attack because there was an Israeli astronaut on board

No one is saying that anymore. That was just some speculation on the part of the media, and I'm sure tons of other people. You've got to realize why people thought of that as a possibility at first. I mean come on, first Israeli astronaut ever, with this whole War on Terror thing going on...Americans and Israeli's are about the least liked people on the planet right now. Ofcourse terrorism was considered early on. But it's been ruled out by pretty much everyone as a possibility.

Dr. Evil
02-01-2003, 11:14 PM
Who said it was a terrorist attack!?! I didn't hear that once today. I DID hear that the government has ruled out terrorists as a possibility.

I agree that the loss of the knowledge that could have been gained from that trip due to data and specimins is more tragic than seven lives. I feel for the families that were affected, though.

Some people believe that we shouldn't be exploring space. Unfortunately, this is just more fuel for their beliefs. However, I think that one incident like this every few years is to be expected when you send a vehicle 21, 000 miles per hour through the sky... and we've been doing it since the 50's.


Peace

Glowrider
02-01-2003, 11:21 PM
NASA's failure ratio is VERY low. I think it's like 3 in 101 missions or something like that. Their record for safety and successful missions is impeccable. I've never heard of anyone saying we shouldn't be exploring space. Exploration is human nature, it's what we do. Space exploration, and experiments done in space have led to thousands of technological, scientific, and medical advancements.

To say that we shouldn't be doing what we've been doing as far as space exploration is concerned is absolutely ludicrous. We all reap the benefits of the space programs around the world, no matter what country's astronauts are responsible for the breakthroughs.

Terrorism was mentioned when this first happened in the early morning, but as I said, and as you mentioned this talk was immediately stopped by the White House, and wasn't heard very much more through out the rest of the day.

Ajay
02-02-2003, 12:08 AM
I completely agree that you can't cease the exploration of space, it's only a matter of time before a team goes and venture's out to Mar's in my opinion. That's how even this area of th world was discovered, exploration.

Nasa's failure rate IS extremely low, in the history of Nasa there's been three major disasters (Apollo 1, The Challenger, and now The Columbia). For the amount of scientific breakthroughs Nasa has accomplished, three failures is nothing. However, in space travel there is no room for error which makes this such a big deal, so many processes have to be checked and checked over again to make sure there's no foul ups which makes this tougher to swallow for alot of people.

As soon as I heard about this I knew it couldn't be terrorism...I mean what missle can fly up to an altitude of over 200,000 ft? The highest flying plane is about 90,000 feet. Sure maybe an ICBM could get higher than that but 200,000??!?!? I don't think so. But in the post Sept 11 world a lot of things that do happen are brought back to the idea of terrorism.

4wheeldrift
02-02-2003, 10:05 AM
Originally posted by Ajay

As soon as I heard about this I knew it couldn't be terrorism...I mean what missle can fly up to an altitude of over 200,000 ft? The highest flying plane is about 90,000 feet. Sure maybe an ICBM could get higher than that but 200,000??!?!? I don't think so. But in the post Sept 11 world a lot of things that do happen are brought back to the idea of terrorism. The US military has missiles they use to shoot down satellites, but its not something that you walk into your local black market and say "I need to blow up somethign in low earth orbit" and they hand it over to you. Its an incredibly sophisticated piece of equipment that, to my knowledge, no other nation on the globe posesses. Could you use it to shoot down a space shuttle? Probably, assuming you could get your paws on an F-15 to launch it from. But that is way beyond what any terrorist group is capable of, This was a tragic accident, nothing more.

___2PaC___
02-02-2003, 10:30 AM
POSSIBLE REASON FOR EXPLODING:

It all started during take off. You know how theres that BIG Orangish/Redish tank, well during take off a piece of foam from that huge tank hit the left wing, under the left wing of Shuttle Columbia, the NASA people thought it wasn't anythin big. It would be like you or me being hit by a sponge. That might have torn or chipped off some tiles. As most of ya should know, when any shuttle re-enters earth atmosphere it is going on a slant not nose-down but belly-down. And the shuttle kind of goes like in a S shape all the way down to its landing target, so it slows down, kind alike a skier swerving side to side. This could have cause the left wing to catch on fire because IF the tiles were chipped, the heat MIGHT have hit the skin that was exposed. Then after that...It rust rolle dove rn over, anf wa sa ball of fire. That one theorie on it.

See how the back of the left side is all on fire:
http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/US/02/01/shuttle.investigation/story.columbia.to.space.jpg


R.I.P to all 7.

SI-vic
02-02-2003, 04:59 PM
R.I.P To The 7

Ben
02-02-2003, 06:34 PM
Terrorist this, Terrorist that, I'm bloody sickk of hearing that word...

A real shame that happened, even when its an accepted risk taken by all those involved. Condolences galore!

kenny
02-02-2003, 07:28 PM
This is most definitely going to mean the end of the space program for a few years (at least).

Glowrider
02-02-2003, 07:32 PM
No, it won't be the end at all. NASA does ALOT more than shuttle flights. Aerospace projects, satellite launches, unmanned missions, etc. Not to mention the government contract stuff that none of us know about.

What happened to the challenger didn't stop NASA, and this won't either.

Weapon_R
02-02-2003, 08:28 PM
Originally posted by kenny
This is most definitely going to mean the end of the space program for a few years (at least).

I don't think so.

I didn't hear anything about this being related to a terrorist attack, although I did hear that they ruled out terrorist activity from the beginning.

For a terrorist to be able to hit a shuttle travelling at Mach 6 and at 200,000 feet in the air is nothing short of incredible. Coupled by the fact that most air defence batteries rarely down a fighter jet travelling at Mach 1.5, I don't think that any terrorist organization (including Al Qaeda) would be able to design or purchase anything remotely sophisticated enough to down this.

Glowrider
02-02-2003, 08:31 PM
a shuttle travelling at Mach 6

Mach 18...18 times the speed of sound.