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Astronauts killed

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Astronauts killed
I just turned on the tv to breaking news that the columbia space shuttle is feared to have disintegrated on its reentry killing all 7 astronauts.
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Re: [Paul] Astronauts killed In reply to
I can usually watch the Shuttle en route its landing in Florida from my house in Houston. It looks very similar to the footage we're seeing on TV of this tragedy, a little smaller with a slight rumble as it heads east.

I didn't watch this time, but got a phone call from my sister reporting that the windows shook in her house for nearly 30 seconds. Debris from the shuttle has been found around her community in NE Texas.

My heart breaks for the shuttle families, our friends in Israel, and for the larger NASA family.

I watched Challenger takeoff in between college classes on Jan 28, 1986, and another friend points out that the Apollo 1 tragedy was Jan 27, 1968.
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Re: [Paul] Astronauts killed In reply to
Amazing time we live in where such a tragedy can be captured in so many ways. Here's a link for a weather radar loop which shows some of the debris trail:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/....p20-r/si.kpoe.shtml

-Scott
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Re: [ArmyAirForces] Astronauts killed In reply to
An odd note with this.. it was Jan 28, 1986 when the Challenger exploded and Jan 27, 1967 when the Apollo spacecraft burned; and now the Columbia shuttle blowing up on the 1st of Feb 2003 Unimpressed

All days within a week of each other...scary!

Andy (mod)
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Re: [Andy] Astronauts killed In reply to
They probably time their missions around the same time.

The terrorist idea has come up too. There's no way a terrorist blew up a space shuttle that was 200,000 feet into the atmosphere.

Last edited by:

Paul: Feb 1, 2003, 10:27 AM
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Re: [Paul] Astronauts killed In reply to
>>>There's no way a terrorist blew up a space shuttle that was 200,000 feet into the atmosphere. <<<

Unless one of the astronauts were the terrorist....its all guessing work really though....it could have just been a genuine tragedy.

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Re: [Andy] Astronauts killed In reply to
They were all americans but one who was an israeli.
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Re: [Paul] Astronauts killed In reply to
That is too bad and sad...interesting that I heard about it first here and then read posts in other discussion forums I frequent...now four hours later, I'm starting to see reports on the television...interesting that an American cable network, WGN, postponed airing "Star Wars" out of respect for the astronauts and their families.

BTW: Anyone remember where they were when the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded in 1986? I was in my middle school's computer lab.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

Last edited by:

Stealth: Feb 1, 2003, 2:08 PM
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Re: [Stealth] Astronauts killed In reply to
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Anyone remember where they were when the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded in 1986? I was in my middle school's computer lab.

Challenger?

I have no recollection of it at all. I was 5 years old :(

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Paul: Feb 1, 2003, 2:16 PM
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Re: [Paul] Astronauts killed In reply to
I have no recollection as to where I was at that time. My earliest memory of Challenger was from an episode of "Punky Brewster" when I was six.

Being that they were within 15 minutes of landing, it makes you wonder if this tragedy would have been avoided had they began their trip back just 15 minutes sooner.

An interesting note is that NASA had been discussing retiring Columbia prior to this mission.

Philip
------------------
Limecat is not pleased.
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Re: [fuzzy thoughts] Astronauts killed In reply to
The last I heard, they suspected that damage was caused to the left wing during takeoff two weeks ago.

Something about insulation falling off the booster rockets.

If true, this would mean the time of approach would have had little effect on the outcome.

What they haven't explained is why the heat shielding wasn't fixed prior to re-entry.
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Re: [wysardry] Astronauts killed In reply to
They said the foam that came off on launch wouldn't (or shouldn't) have caused the disaster yesterday.

They said they couldn't fix the tile as the columbia didn't have the cabability to do so. They needed one of those mechanic arms which they didn't have.

Last edited by:

Paul: Feb 2, 2003, 6:20 AM
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Re: [Paul] Astronauts killed In reply to
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Anyone remember where they were when the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded in 1986?

Ack! I was in college - y'all are making me feel really old.
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Re: [Paul] Astronauts killed In reply to
Yes...sorry, I meant Challenger.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
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Re: [Watts] Astronauts killed In reply to
>>>Anyone remember where they were when the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded in 1986?<<<

I was only two Unimpressed Your making me feel young...lol

Andy (mod)
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Re: [Paul] Astronauts killed In reply to
It was on the front page of Sunday's newspaper. How horrible. And right above it was "7 teens killed in avalanche" right near me. :(
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Re: [Stealth] Astronauts killed In reply to
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BTW: Anyone remember where they were when the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded in 1986? I was in my middle school's computer lab.


I was teaching in a middle school and when the students found out about the disaster, they all cheered because there was a teacher on board. They were really a nasty bunch of little thugs. That was my last year teaching.
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Re: [Stealth] Astronauts killed In reply to
I was flipping burgers at White Spot when the Columbia failed.

I still remember watching on TV the Apollo landings on the moon. [B/W TV]

This was flight 113 in numbers and sad to lose people trying to survive work in space.

They sat in chairs and relied on technology and it failed, the people in those chairs did not fail.

Their ride back failed and it was unexpected from their guardians at Nasa.

But space is just that space, the unknown, on earth cars crash every minute.

Nasa puts people into space with a view to their return and they work hard at the whole journey.

Vehicles for space are still unique and built by people on earth, with respect to space flight conditions.

Engineers and scientists work on providing their best knowledge for materials for space and flight.

But in real life there is a budget.

So engineer/scientific reality gets a can you do it for $1 less. Same goes on earth for cars/safety $.

Although if you build a 100% safe space vehicle it will be too heavy to get to the safe job in space.

One day it may be safe, but for now it is a risk worth taking towards finding the safer route.

thanks

cornball
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Re: [joematt] Astronauts killed In reply to
>>>I was teaching in a middle school and when the students found out about the disaster, they all cheered because there was a teacher on board. They were really a nasty bunch of little thugs. That was my last year teaching. <<<

Thats horrible! My dad was saying that it went dead silent when that happened where he was being taught Frown

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