|
|
This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Space shuttle Columbia appears lost
|
|
|
|
|
Darryl Spicer
Film God
Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000
|
posted 02-02-2003 01:36 AM
I am believing that the whole incident as stated below is the way that the final cause will come to. I believe that these seven fine astronauts were spending 16 days in a flying caufin and didn't even know it. I hope they have that special place in heaven for these fine people. May god bless all there families.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Investigators trying to figure out what destroyed space shuttle Columbia immediately focused on the left wing and the possibility that its thermal tiles were damaged far more seriously than NASA realized by a piece of debris during liftoff.
Just a little over a minute into Columbia's launch Jan. 16, a chunk of insulating foam peeled away from the external fuel tank and smacked into the ship's left wing.
On Saturday, that same wing started exhibiting sensor failures and other problems 23 minutes before Columbia was scheduled to touch down. With just 16 minutes remaining before landing, the shuttle disintegrated over Texas.
Just a day earlier, on Friday, NASA's lead flight director, Leroy Cain, had declared the launch-day incident to be absolutely no reason for concern. An extensive engineering analysis had concluded that any damage to Columbia's thermal tiles would be minor.
``As we look at that now in hindsight ... we can't discount that there might be a connection,'' shuttle manager Ron Dittemore said on Saturday, hours after the tragedy. ``But we have to caution you and ourselves that we can't rush to judgment on it because there are a lot of things in this business that look like the smoking gun but turn out not even to be close.''
The shuttle has more than 20,000 thermal tiles to protect it from the extreme heat of re-entry into the atmosphere. The black, white or gray tiles are made of a carbon composite or silica-glass fibers and are attached to the shuttle with silicone adhesive.
If a spaceship has loose, damaged or missing tiles, that can change the aerodynamics of the ship and warp or melt the underlying aluminum airframe, causing nearby tiles to peel off in a chain reaction.
If the tiles start stripping off in large numbers or in crucial spots, a spacecraft can overheat, break up and plunge to Earth in a shower of hot metal, much like Russia's Mir space station did in 2001.
Dittemore said that the disaster could have been caused instead by a structural failure of some sort. He did not elaborate.
As for other possibilities, however, NASA said that until the problems with the wing were noticed, everything else appeared to be performing fine.
NASA officials said, for example, that the shuttle was in the proper position when it re-entered the atmosphere on autopilot. Re-entry at too steep an angle can cause a spaceship to burn up.
Law enforcement authorities said was no indication of terrorism; at an altitude of 39 miles, the shuttle was out of range of any surface-to-air missile, one senior government official said.
If the liftoff damage was to blame, the shuttle and its crew of seven may well have been doomed from the very start of the mission.
Dittemore said there was nothing that the astronauts could have done in orbit to fix damaged thermal tiles and nothing that flight controllers could have done to safely bring home a severely scarred shuttle, given the extreme temperatures of re-entry.
The shuttle broke apart while being exposed to the peak temperature of 3,000 degrees on the leading edge of the wings, while traveling at 12,500 mph, or 18 times the speed of sound.
A California Institute of Technology astronomer Anthony Beasley, reported seeing a trail of fiery debris behind the shuttle over California, with one piece clearly backing away and giving off its own light before slowly fading and falling. Dittemore was unaware of the sighting and did not want to speculate on it.
If thermal tiles were being ripped off the wing, that would have created drag and the shuttle would have started tilting from the ideal angle of attack. That could have caused the ship to overheat and disintegrate.
Dittemore said that even if the astronauts had gone out on an emergency spacewalk, there was no way a spacewalker could have safely checked under the wings, which bear the brunt of heat re-entry and have reinforced protection.
Even if they did find damage, there was nothing the crew could have done to fix it, he said.
``There's nothing that we can do about tile damage once we get to orbit,'' Dittemore said. ``We can't minimize the heating to the point that it would somehow not require a tile. So once you get to orbit, you're there and you have your tile insulation and that's all you have for protection on the way home from the extreme thermal heating during re-entry.''
The shuttle was not equipped with its 50-foot robot arm because it was not needed during this laboratory research mission, and so the astronauts did not have the option of using the arm's cameras to get a look at the damage.
NASA did not request help in trying to observe the damaged area with ground telescopes or satellites, in part because it did not believe the pictures would be useful, Dittemore.
Long-distance pictures did not help flight controllers when they wanted to see the tail of space shuttle Discovery during John Glenn's flight in 1998; the door for the drag-chute compartment had fallen off seconds after liftoff.
It was the second time in just four months that a piece of fuel-tank foam came off during a shuttle liftoff. In October, Atlantis lost a piece of foam that ended up striking the aft skirt of one of its solid-fuel booster rockets. At the time, the damage was thought to be superficial.
Dittemore said this second occurrence ``is certainly a signal to our team that something has changed.''
| IP: Logged
|
|
Mark Maxwell
Film Handler
Posts: 55
From: Tyler, TX, USA
Registered: Jul 2002
|
posted 02-02-2003 01:56 AM
I've actually been down here in Nacogdoches for a few days. Whoever approved me to be amember and read my info when I applied here might know I'm from here and come down alot to see my twin and hang out at a theater I used to work at. I went out with friends last night and stayed up too late, so I slept through the blast. Everyone I've talked to said the sound and the shaking lasted about a minute and a half. Two hours after it happened a fleet of helicopters flew overhead and woke me up. I could tell something was going on. At that time my brother's roomate ran in and asked if I heard them. Then he tol be the shuttle blew up. Right then I figured out what was going on because this town is in the path of entry. The whole mood of Nacogdoches today has been sobering. In one sad sence it's exiting because this is a small town and you see a few clipps of it on CNN. Butt when you go to the different places that wreckage has landed, It's totally quiet, even though there are a couple of hundred people there. All you hear are the reporters. This might sound stupid to some of you, but when you see this piece of wreckage that just looks the size of a beat up car hood, the reality of what happened sets in. The National Guard is everywhere keeping lookout on fragments that might have come from Columbia. We had 2 F-16's in the air, reports say that ther is an intact tank with a circumference of three feet that crashed at the airport here. My brother is a manager at the Wall-Mart in Lufkin, Tx. 20 miles south of here and they thought the roof was about to come down because the shockwave was that bad. I called my parents to let them know we were fine and they expressed what I and everyone in Nac. was hoping. Hopefully it was quick and they didn't have time to be scared. Heros die, but they are never forgotten.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hillary Charles
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 748
From: York, PA, USA
Registered: Feb 2001
|
posted 02-02-2003 08:41 AM
As the news changes to stories of recovery of pieces of the shuttle and remains of the heroes, my shock is turning into profound sorrow. Between these brave souls and those who would profit from the tragedy, we see among the best and the worst of what humanity has to offer.
This is a blatant reminder how dangerous space travel is. Everyone who has ever strapped themselves into a space vehicle deserve our respect and admiration. And these seven, as with others who've given their lives in space exploration, should and will never be forgotten. My sympathies to all those touched by this event.
When the Columbia first launched, ushering in the STS program, we didn't have a VCR, so I used our Super-8 movie camera to film it off the tv screen. I could never have imagined then how the story of Columbia would end. A sad day, indeed.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Will Morrow
Film Handler
Posts: 91
From: Mt. Pleasant, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2001
|
posted 02-05-2003 04:14 PM
An earlier post said 1/88 spaceflights would end in a catastrophic event, but on NPR, someone affiliated with NASA said it was 1/430 give or take on that 430...but thats right in the ballpark.
Anyone know of sources for this information? 1/88 just sounds made up, for the purpose of hype, with this being the 88th launch. I feel that type of hype takes away from the spirit of these individuals, and their accomplishments.
I have an idea...I follow orders really well...they can send a mere projectionist into space...like myself...that hasn't accomplished that much...and have reall smart, successful people direct me on what to do. Then, if something goes wrong, I will be happy knowing I made it into space...and instead of mourning my loss, we can celebrate my passing with a cool "Space Themed" party.
I know the above may seem poor in taste, but we all handle loss differently. I also realize every human life has its value (save the bung nuggets selling stuff on ebay related to this tragedy).
I am 24 now, and remember sitting in class when Challenger didn't make it out of our atmosphere...I remember that as the first time I ever experienced sorrow, it was also when I decided I no longer wanted to be an astronaut.
After that disaster, my grandma's husband was part of the budget cuts that have plagued NASA. This man lived, ate and drank his work for NASA, and his livelyhood was stipped when he was "laid off" indeffinately.
I have the feeling of this. We either attack space exploration with full force, or we end it altogether. There is no room to ride the fence when lives are stake, as well as the future of mankind.
God Bless the families of those lost, as well as those men and women who still dream of flying into space.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man
Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000
|
posted 02-05-2003 10:49 PM
Steve said: quote:
When the case is closed I can't say I would consider it wrong.
That depends on what it is. Two incidents come to mind:
One was an old WWII vintage aircraft was supposedly purposely dumped into Lake Washington (Maybe Lake Union) in Seattle, and was retrieved by some aviation collectors several years ago. Even though the plane was striken from the register, the navy contended it was still navy property. A lawsuit was initiated, but in all honesty, I do not know who won.
The other incident involved a coast guard jet that crashed in Colorado. It was discovered by two of my brothers who were climbing mountains in that state. They reported it to the USAF, and their archives indicated it was a plane that crashed sometime in the late '50's or 60's. The air force or coast guard were not interested in the parts scattered around the crash site, and many of them probably still remain there. Apparently, the military concluded their investigation long ago, and from what I understand, if anyone wanted to drag any of that stuff home, they were welcome to do so.
I presume it is politics, and whether any equipment had security classifications.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic