Breaking News: NASA declares shuttle emergency

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Originally posted by Hellsbellboy
way to early to speculate on what happened.

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Speculation is human nature. And, I was only echoing the conversation carried on in the aforementioned article.

What I believe is to early is for the press to publically speculate. It's like what happened when the press reported Gore as the 2000 electee, before the tally was complete. Did you notice that, although NASA was not confirming the loss of shuttle until there was enough evidence (and, wisely, so did Aria when starting this thread) -- the news went head-first into it and declared the shuttle as lost. So what if they were right this time -- the press should be reporting facts, not speculation.

The difference is that in general conversation, speculation is used to generate ideas. Coming from the press, speculation is erroneously interpreted as fact not supposition. One is healthy, the other damaging.

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Originally posted by LuxFX
Speculation is human nature. And, I was only echoing the conversation carried on in the aforementioned article.

What I believe is to early is for the press to publically speculate. Did you notice that, although NASA was not confirming the loss of shuttle until there was enough evidence (and, wisely, so did Aria when starting this thread) -- the news went head-first into it and declared the shuttle as lost. So what if they were right this time -- the press should be reporting facts, not speculation.

The difference is that in general conversation, speculation is used to generate ideas. Coming from the press, speculation is erroneously interpreted as fact not supposition. One is healthy, the other damaging.

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Indeed true. However anyone with Eyeballs that saw the Footage could speculate safely that indeed the Shuttle is gone. Its like looking outside and seeing the Sun thus concluding that the sun indeed is shining.

You don't need much more than that.

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Originally posted by johnie
Indeed true. However anyone with Eyeballs that saw the Footage could speculate safely that indeed the Shuttle is gone. Its like looking outside and seeing the Sun thus concluding that the sun indeed is shining.

You don't need much more than that.

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actually the initial reaction by viewers was a very bright meteor.

Just woke up.......sad to hear, my sympathies go out to the families of the dead crew.

The news industry will have a feeding frenzy of speculation.

david p.

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Originally posted by LuxFX
The article seemed to agree with my own initial assessment, that the disaster was caused by loss of attitude during re-entry. This has always been a very dangerous time, and frankly I think we should all be thankful more incidents have not occurred during this stage.

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yeah re-entry is one of the most critical moments - I read that apparently the angle of penetration should be at 40 degrees to the horizon... The margin of error is at most three or four degrees. Beyond that range the shuttle becomes uncontrollable.

a

ominously they said that the entire descent is computer controlled, except the landing itself.

SO SO SAD :(

MY HEART GOES OUT THE THE FAMILIES OF THE ASTRONAUTS THAT PASSED AWAY
THEY WILL BE GREATLY MISSED

Ugh! Try waking up to this news and also hearing that your great-grandmother is in the hospital, and not expected to make it more than a day or two :(

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Originally posted by LuxFX
actually the initial reaction by viewers was a very bright meteor.

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Not the ones that knew that was the path for shuttle reentry. CBS got secondary footage of it from someone who was recording the rentery.

Computer failure, hydralics failure, any number of factors could have caused it...

The interviews with former shuttle crew members and former astronauts was informative.

I still wonder though if there is a manual overide and redundent system to control the craft.

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Originally posted by Aria
the NASA press conf is on now ...but thought I'd post this article which is very interesting

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...418462,00.html
a

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The article above states:

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One immediate problem, though, is the International Space Station, which currently has a crew of three on board. They might consider one further flight to bring that crew home — the other option would be for them to return aboard a Russian Soyuz craft, which isn't the most comfortable or the safest ride.

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Doesn't seem like we're in a position to be making judgements on the safty of the Russians' craft :rolleyes:

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Originally posted by johnie
Not the ones that knew that was the path for shuttle reentry. CBS got secondary footage of it from someone who was recording the rentery.

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They interviewed a hobbyist who recorded it and said it looked like a normal reentry with the plasma trail etc ... what gave it away was the noise that followed.

Having said that I would have preferred if they waited until the NASA conf before they declared them 'lost'.
Those ppl had families and relatives and friends -their immediate families were with NASA officials being briefed but the others were getting what they could through TV coverage and the same video footage playing over and over.
a

they were saying that NASA anticipates that a catastrophic event will occur approximately once per 75 space missions. this is the second crash in around 140 take offs and landings.

the fact increases my appreciation for the courage of all astronaughts. they are heroes indeed.

...turned on the news 20 minutes ago...... brutal

R.I.P :(:(

It's a sad day.

You know what, I bet all the news broadcasters will do what they did with September 11 and just repeat the same stuff over and over and make it more dramatic than it really is.

After doing my media studies course I pay a lot of attention to the way they give out information.

I do not intend to offend anyone by saying this, because it is a sad day for sure.

I just watched a re broadcast of the news briefing they gave wednesday on CSPAN..

I've just had a pit in my stomach about this all day.

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Originally posted by Gloomycus
You know what, I bet all the news broadcasters will do what they did with September 11 and just repeat the same stuff over and over and make it more dramatic than it really is.

After doing my media studies course I pay a lot of attention to the way they give out information.

I do not intend to offend anyone by saying this, because it is a sad day for sure.

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Absolutely no offense taken on my part.

I hate how the media soaks you in this stuff...I mean it is depressing when I can't even turn on the TV without having to watch hundreds of replays of the same shot while I hear old information mixed with new + a bucket load of speculation.

I just want to escape from all this...it can be emotionally trying.

Clif

I'm right there with you, Clif. I've always been a huge fan of the space program. This has hit me pretty hard. Completely ruined my day. :(

and now I can't check up on news or anything without having to revisit it. I'm so depressed...

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Originally posted by aversion
ominously they said that the entire descent is computer controlled, except the landing itself.

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yep that's true, but with the Pilot as the backup.

If only.