The Space Shuttle breaks up over Texas

[daisybean]

That is very sad....

I hope the seven astronauts are at peace

 

[Calluna]

 

[Bonochick]

Incredibly sad and tragic news.

Life is precious...cherish those around you and never forget those who have passed on.

 

[Lilly]

i saw it on breaking news in walmart this morning...then i dropped my stuff and left.

 

[Kariann]

When I turned on the news to check out what was happening in the world today and saw this my heart sank. It seems as though travelling into space has become more of a common occurrence that you forget just much courage and passion that those who participate in the shuttle missions have. My thoughts and prayers go to their families and friends.

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

It sounds as if their heat shield didn't hold up. God bless those poor brave astronauts.

It seems this flight may have been doomed right after take off.

How so?

 

[daisybean]

It sounds as if their heat shield didn't hold up. God bless those poor brave astronauts.



How so?

I guess during takeoff a piece of "foam" from the booster rockets broke off and hit the wing and damaging those heat tile things. That is the current theory now...I guess we won't know more until they can finish the investigation

 

[ti-hua]

 

[theSoulfulMofo]

 

[Flag Pole Pear]

its awful. and retardedly symbolistic of the jewish struggle. i mean, to me its always seemed like the world has always been against them, and now with todays tragedy it just emphasis that point again. i wouldnt normally say this about any one group or nation, but i really feel bad not only for the families and friends of the people lost, but also all jews and israel itself. if i think the world is unfair sometimes, i just have to look to them to see how everything has been a struggle.

 

[TripThruUreWires]

 

[EPandAmerica]

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

this is just terrible. i watched the coverage most of the day yesterday. i could not help but cry. esp when they were showing the wreakage on the ground and the burned out helmut that was found i lost it. those poor families and NASA. i remember watching the Challenger explode live on tv when i was in the 5th grade. i hoped and prayed nothing like that would ever happen again, but knowing how dangerous space flight is it is a danger that will always be there. God bless them all. once again it makes me realize not to take my family and friends for granted and to make sure i say i love them because life is too short.

 

[Zoo-vox]

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

 

[deep]

I am getting tired of Fox News and many other news stations saying they were only sixteen minutes from landing.

At blast off the Shuttle was damaged. Their time was up sixteen days ago. There was no way to repair it. I believe many at NASA were holding their breath and praying for a miracle.

 

[ABEL]

we don't know that for sure yet deep, it's too early to jump to conclusion.

 

[deep]

It seems this flight may have been doomed right after take off.

Able,

I believed it yesterday morning when I heard about the incident at blast off. Everything else I have learned since then leads me to this conclusion. Time will tell if it widely accepted. The sad thing is, that there was no way to repair it. There were parachutes on board, no ejection devices though.

 

[ABEL]

I agree that it does look like the conclusion is that the tiles caused the accident. I'm just saying it's too early to tell who's to blame for what.

Even if they had some sort of ejection device, when you're going some 12000 mph, and the temperature is 3000 degrees, and you're 40 miles up in the sky, they still sadly wouldn't have had much chance of survival

Hopefully out of this tragedy can come some new ideas to improve the design of the shuttle, and escape devices.

 

[Foxxern]

At blast off the Shuttle was damaged. Their time was up sixteen days ago. There was no way to repair it. I believe many at NASA were holding their breath and praying for a miracle.

Actually, NASA had looked into the possibility of that being a problem. After reviewing the situation, they determined at the time that the loss of those heat tiles during launch would not pose a problem on reentry.

A shuttle losing a few heat tiles during the rigors of space travel is completely normal. What NASA is now trying to determine is whether or not those initial claims will turn out to be the real problem. Remember, when the Challenger disaster was first being investigated, initial focus was on a problem with the engines. Only later were the O-rings on the solid rocket boosters identified as the culprits.

Let's hope they can find the problem and remedy it so that this does not happen again.

 

[ghetofabu]

Very good point Foxxern. Yesterday I saw the old address that Regan gave about the Challenger. I was like 8 when that happened. I actually remember it. Watching it on TV at school. I remember my parents talking to me about it. I called my mom and talked to her on Saturday. I don't think she knew that I remembered and I told her that I did. She remembered as well. It was an odd sort of flash back.

It is hard for me to believe that I am only 24 years old and I have seen two shuttle explosions and the worst terrorist attack ever. My grandparents have been around longer. They have been around for this and other things like presidential assassinations the such. It is just hard to grasp sometimes.

 

[hiphop]

I agree that it does look like the conclusion is that the tiles caused the accident. I'm just saying it's too early to tell who's to blame for what.

Even if they had some sort of ejection device, when you're going some 12000 mph, and the temperature is 3000 degrees, and you're 40 miles up in the sky, they still sadly wouldn't have had much chance of survival

Hopefully out of this tragedy can come some new ideas to improve the design of the shuttle, and escape devices.

To improve the design, maybe...?

Escape devices? No way! For the circumstances you mentioned.

North American Aviation test pilot George Smith became the first person to survive ejection from an aircraft flying at supersonic speed in 1955. His F-100 Super Sabre was traveling at Mach 1.05 when the controls jammed and he was forced to punch out.

Guess in which state he came out.

No way for ejection seats on shuttles - in my humble opinion. Maybe technology improves, but it can?t change the laws and powers of Nature.

 

[ouizy]

VERY SAD NEWS INDEED























ouizy thinks we should not be flying shuttle to space that were designed in the 1970's.

ouizy also thinks the remaining three shuttles we have should be grounded and used for kids to walk around on and explore.

We cannot have this happen again...

 

[BAW]

I think Ouizy is right

 

[ThatGuy]

ouizy thinks we should not be flying shuttle to space that were designed in the 1970's.

ouizy also thinks the remaining three shuttles we have should be grounded and used for kids to walk around on and explore.

We cannot have this happen again...

I do hope that OUIZYAIR won't fly Boeing 747s (designed in the 60's).

The age argument is fairly irrelevant. The Columbia had recently been stripped to its frame and equipped with modern computers and other equipment. So, while it was the oldest shuttle in the fleet, it was also one of the newest.

 

[ouizy]

OUIZYAIR is having custom planes designed and built right now.

No need to worry about safety either in terms of pilot error as there will be not pilots on OUIZYAIR, all flights will be automatically controlled from a central station hidden high in the Himalayas.


I think space flight is scary.

More importantly, if NASA knew of an idiosyncrasy during takeoff (i.e. the insulation or whatever hitting the left wing) why were the astronauts not told of this, and why was the left wing not inspected in orbit.

They had time to test all the experiments on ants and rats, but they did not have time to fix what NASA may have known to be a problem from take-off.

I find it disturbing.

I find it disturbing that under no circumstance does the shuttle have a means of escape for the crew. I mean shit, fighter planes have ejection seats and they are not flying at 12,000 miles an hour (then again, maybe that is why the shuttle does not have an ejection capsule)

seems silly to ouizy.

In any event, Bear, you made a poignant point and it was well versed:

its awful. and retardedly symbolistic of the jewish struggle. i mean, to me its always seemed like the world has always been against them, and now with todays tragedy it just emphasis that point again. i wouldnt normally say this about any one group or nation, but i really feel bad not only for the families and friends of the people lost, but also all jews and israel itself. if i think the world is unfair sometimes, i just have to look to them to see how everything has been a struggle.

 

[ThatGuy]

More importantly, if NASA knew of an idiosyncrasy during takeoff (i.e. the insulation or whatever hitting the left wing) why were the astronauts not told of this, and why was the left wing not inspected in orbit.

I was listening to NPR as the whole thing went down. At one point they were interviewing a former head of Mission Control and he said somthing to the effect of, "Things fall off during liftoff all of the time." He was referring to ice that forms on the tanks and that falls off as it heats up during takeoff. So apparently it's not so strange for something to fall off and hit the shuttle during that time.

You're right, though, about inspecting the spot where it hit. Although if it had been found to have knocked off the heat-resistant tiles it's possible that they would have tried to land anyway. Another former NASA official said later that day on NPR that the tiles routinely fall off, too.


Maybe NASA should just make sure less stuff falls off the shuttle.

 

[ouizy]

I agree.

It is true that the tiles fall off, but it is also true that none of the astronauts on the flight were trained to replace the *life-saving* tiles.

If these are so crucial to the flight, wouldn't it make sense to at minimum train the astronauts to be able to replace them.

Especially if there is some kind of catastrophic event during take-off.

What if it was easily visible that there was a problem witht the wing, they would not be able to fix it.

also,


WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GODDAMNED ICE FORMING ON THE SHUTTLE BEFORE IT TAKES OFF IN FLORIDA????

I understand it gets cold, but shit, I have had my plane de-iced on more than one occasion, this is hte friggin space shuttle.

The whole thing pisses me off...

 

[nbcrusader]

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GODDAMNED ICE FORMING ON THE SHUTTLE BEFORE IT TAKES OFF IN FLORIDA????

I understand it gets cold, but shit, I have had my plane de-iced on more than one occasion, this is hte friggin space shuttle.

The liquid fuel in the main tank (extremely cold) and the high humidity in Florida make ice formation a certainty.

 

[Giant Lemon]

North American Aviation test pilot George Smith became the first person to survive ejection from an aircraft flying at supersonic speed in 1955. His F-100 Super Sabre was traveling at Mach 1.05 when the controls jammed and he was forced to punch out.

Guess in which state he came out.

Whoa, what happened to him?