Breaking News: NASA declares shuttle emergency

[Aria]

The shuttle was carrying the first Israeli astronaut and six Americans, and authorities had feared it would be a terrorist target.

Fifteen minutes after the expected landing time, and with no word from the shuttle, NASA announced that search and rescue teams were being mobilized in Dallas and Fort Worth areas.

Inside Mission Control, flight controller hovered in front of their computers, staring at the screens. The wives, husbands and children of the astronauts who had been waiting at the landing strip were gathered together by NASA and taken to separate place.

Columbia was at an altitude of 200,700 feet over north-central Texas at a 9 a.m., traveling at 12,500 mph when mission control lost contact and tracking data.

NASA, while not saying the shuttle had exploded, broken up or crashed, warned that any debris found in the area should be avoided and could be hazardous. There were reports of debris seen falling.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2003Feb1.html


We are watching it on the news now here .... theres debris falling off the sky -it looks like there was an explosion

a

[hurricaneone]

Wow, not good.



Sorry for the understatement.

[aversion]

jesus, it sounds like it's gone down, Bush is about to make a statement.

very very crappy

[iForgotMyPassword]

hmmm this ain't good news at all aria.....

lets hope that Bush doesn't overreact on this one... till he has got enough evidence....

[aversion]

Originally posted by iForgotMyPassword
hmmm this ain't good news at all aria.....

lets hope that Bush doesn't overreact on this one... till he has got enough evidence....

I don't think anyone is thinking this is a terrorist attack, the shuttle was at 200,000 feet, travelling at 12,000mph, there's not a missile made that could hit that.



latest pictures show it breakign up in the air... ****.

[hurricaneone]

I just saw some video footage on CNN - a huge trail of smoke and debris, bits just falling off and following the main piece. 19,000 kmh (Mach 6) at 200,000 ft...

[aversion]

i hope that no one on the ground was hurt, they were over central texas I think.

[iForgotMyPassword]

Originally posted by aversion
I don't think anyone is thinking this is a terrorist attack, the shuttle was at 200,000 feet, travelling at 12,000mph, there's not a missile made that could hit that.



latest pictures show it breakign up in the air... ****.

ohhh okay..... didn't know that...

[maximumbob]

Yeah... there was no explosion, just breakage....

The debris were centralized over Palestine, Texas.

[WMLeeBo]

The news just said that there was NO TERRORIST ACTIVITY. That's good to know, I just hate the idea of going to war.

[hurricaneone]

The BBC just announced that on launch, the Columbia reported that one or two heat-protective tiles had fallen off - evidently something which happens on a regualr basis, but perhaps this time it uncovered a more sensitive area.

[aversion]

I wonder if there's any way they could have bailed out, a separate module that ejects with parachutes attached, something like that. But no one is mentioning it on the news.

[hurricaneone]

Eariler, CNN said that in early shuttle flights, the pilot and co-pilot had ejector seats, which in an emergency would blow them literally right through the roof, but now, there's no such device.

They went on to say that there is a specially built compartment that houses the astronauts, but there's no contingency plan to get that compartment, or the astronauts, away from any catastrophic break up.

[alty29]

thats very sad to here, I was watching it on the news, doesn't look good at all...

[Aria]

Originally posted by hurricaneone
Eariler, CNN said that in early shuttle flights, the pilot and co-pilot had ejector seats, which in an emergency would blow them literally right through the roof, but now, there's no such device.

They are saying here that when it went down it was travelling at like 3 times the speed of sound, it would have made it impossible for them to use the parachutes

a

[defuzz]

From what I've seen on BBC 24 and CNN, the shuttle was going at nearly 20,000kmph at 200,000 feet, I don't think theres any way you could get an ejector seat to perform under those conditions.

Could a mod please go and shut my "Shuttle running linux" thread please, its on page two.

[gdstudios]

This is just a terrible terrible tragedy. I don't think this could have been terror related for the reasons already mentioned, however, I wouldn't rule out possible sabotage given that there was an Israeli crew member aboard and the Challenger anniversary occurring only a few days ago. A sad day for America and the World.

[defuzz]

GDStudios, I think it would be a good idea if you edited that post slightly, it gives the impression that you are suggesting that the Israeli astronaut was involved in some sort of sabotage.

I would think security around the Shuttle is VERY tight so chances of sabotage are minimal.

Lets not forget, its a huge lump of metal that goes into space and then returns at huge speads and at incredible temperatures, I for one think it miraculous that such tragedies don't happen more often on Space missions.

[ViRGo_RK]

Shuttle running linux

Not quite running Linux anymore...

I would make a joke about it, but I don't think this is the right place...

[gdstudios]

Originally posted by defuzz
GDStudios, I think it would be a good idea if you edited that post slightly, it gives the impression that you are suggesting that the Israeli astronaut was involved in some sort of sabotage.

I am not saying that.

Take a look at this. This really is scary. It's NOAA Radar imagery from Texas:

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

Loop: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/loop/D.../si.kshv.shtml