Space Shuttle Columbia just blew-up on reentry

**Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 12:20 am

This is really the first shuttle accident I was able to face from a "comprehensive" viewpoint (beit that I didn't understand the situation when Challenger was lost, let alone remember it). I actually gave the crew a good "read down", learned about their lives and families-as much as the net allowed me to, I stopped when i felt it was getting too speculative or biased-something I usually dont do for most news stories, no matter how big. So I'm thinking this bothered me on some level...anyways... Bush for once didnt look to me as if he was reading from a prompter (even though he might have been-don't read too much into this statement, its not politically oriented at all) and my girlfriend told me the camera cut off just before he began to cry...that hit me on a level too... After an hour of thinking about it and making sure my gf was okay (she tends to get speculative in situations like this and I like to hear what shes thinking, without letting her slip into an abyss) I moved on-but it was, really something. I thought when I read my gf's away message saying '____ told me to watch the news", that it was about the war and an opening attack on baghdad...but, well...it wasn't obviously. Its certainly different being able to see all these events from a more 'I am here' perspective....it'll be 'interesting' (for lack of any better word) to find out how the incident occured. I still believe that someday, when we have some space colonies and intergalactic traffic, etc. that it will be a wonder that these fine astronauts helped contribute too-a little dreamy I know but...still. Well, I offer these fine men and women my thanks for their bravery and continued sacrifice for us all-not just the U.S. in particular. NASA truely affects everyone's future. ::salute:: -AC _____________ "If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything." -Mark Twain

**Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:10 am

I say it's high time to kill the space program. Look how much money has been spent on it. And what do we have to show for it. We still don't know a whole lot about it. Our space travel is not efficient for crap. With all the money that has been spent on space you could: "eed the babies Who don't have enough to eat Shoe the children With no shoes on their feet House the people Livin' in the street Oh, oh, there's a solution" From "Fly Like An Eagle" by Steve Miller. <img src="http://members.truepath.com/tsukikage/MeSS.JPG" style="border:0;"/><div style="text-align:center">"Hashiriya are lonely drivers so, we do not need girlfriends."</div>

**Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:45 am

The space program has shown benefits to us, the problem is they are mostly peripheral. Not so much that they made some discovery out there, but that our efforts to get out there produced some technology that found applications in the earthbound civilian sector. I of course feel horrible for the families, those by blood and those by common goal (the NASA teams). But.... Mark my words. This tragedy like the other, could have been avoided. Columbia had no business being in service. She was retired once when she had met her designed lifespan, then after Challenger was lost, they rolled her back out and put her back on active duty. I'll bet my last Woolong that this was caused by a 26 year old space frame, stressed beyond it's limits as a result of fatigue, impact damage, damage compromising the heat resistant tiles exposing the sub structure to excessive heating, or some combination thereof. Said impact damage caused at launch by an Ice chunk and or insulation fragment. Her left wing came off first, I'm sure of it as those were the sensors that ground control lost information from 7 Minutes before total loss of contact. I would not be surprised if her being so elderly was a MAJOR contributing factor in the disaster. FWIW, I had the Challengers cause of death dead on the same day she went down. <div style="text-align:center"><img src="http://www.bcpl.net/~yorokobi/fs5.jpg" style="border:0;"/></div> <div style="text-align:center"><a href="http://www.bcpl.net/~yorokobi/menagerie.htm" target="top"><img src="http://www.bcpl.net/~yorokobi/jcmenagerie.jpg" style="border:0;"/> JoyCrushers Menagerie - The Collected Works of Yorokobi Assaiki</a></div> <div style="text-align:center">- Winner of "Superior Fic" at <a href="http://juraiantowers.org" target="top">Jurian Towers</a> -</div>

**Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 1:41 pm

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Think about it. If your in the dark area, where the sun does not hit you because it's blocked by either the moon of the planet, it's cold. Then you crank up the heat on re-entry. The repeated heat cycling is VERY stressful. If NASA has no money, then it's time to privatize. Let private funding foot the bill for space exploriation. The NASA people can become like the DOT and govern it. And I heard a bunch of people were fired at NASA. Probably because they were against sending up that old crate knowing that it would fall apart. <img src="http://members.truepath.com/tsukikage/MeSS.JPG" style="border:0;"/><div style="text-align:center">"Hashiriya are lonely drivers so, we do not need girlfriends."</div>

**Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 5:00 pm

The space program is to benifit the human race. I personnal don't want to see Starbucks, Mircosoft, Coke logos all over the space shuttle and stations! We get enough of that on earth we don't need it in space! Besides the "Big" companies that will sponsor space exploration will only be looking to benefit there own companies and will pressure Nasa to look out for there best interest and they will use $$$ to do so. Just like they do in Goverment and everything else. Goverment or the people don't run this country big business does. So no to privatization. I remember the challenger accident very vividly. I was in first grade or Kindegarden the teachers brought all of the students out of class into the cafeteria to watch the challenger take off. It was a big event because a teacher was going up into space for the first time. And one of my teachers (I think) knew the woman teacher. I remember the shuttle going up fine and watching if for awhile and getting bored watching it go up (I was like 5 years old at the time). Then all of the sudden BANG! At first there was silence because everybody was shocked and was wondering what just happened. After that some one said "ow my god" and then alot of gasps. Of course at the time I didn't really understand the significance of the event, but I remember alot of the teaching faculty crying and having them escort us back to class. This is one of my earliest memories.

**Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 5:17 pm

After wondering where it was I'd been hearing about the Columbia shuttle, I finally realised that <a href="http://www.weezer.com/news/">weezer.com</a> had mentioned its launch a couple of weeks ago, as the shuttle's pilot, Commander McCool, was a big fan and had been in touch with the band about trying to get pictures of their albums floating in space... There's a nice little tribute to him on the site now. Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub19.ezboard.com/btenchimuyo79943.showUserPublicProfile?gid=elunojigglioso>El Uno Jigglioso</A> <IMG SRC="http://users.adelphia.net/~henheart/images/poiple.gif" BORDER=0> at: 2/3/03 4:18:06 pm

**Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 5:19 pm

Every dollar spent on space, was spent on the ground. Research to develop large scale integrated circuits (like the CPU and memory boards in your PC or MAC) was largely funded to reduce the mass and power requirements of space age hardware; not to mention the high speed computations that were unavailable from older computers. I once worked on the Shuttle/Spacelab project.

**Posted:** Tue Feb 04, 2003 3:44 am

NO PRE-TRIP INSPECTIONS?!? WTF?! OMG! Somebody better call my mama 'cause NASA folks are about to get an ass whoopin'! :: Storms off to Houston to open a can of whoop-ass :: <img src="http://members.truepath.com/tsukikage/MeSS.JPG" style="border:0;"/><div style="text-align:center">"Hashiriya are lonely drivers so, we do not need girlfriends."</div>

**Posted:** Tue Feb 04, 2003 3:55 pm

<a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/2/3/95729/40505">www.kuro5hin.org/story/20...5729/40505</a> It happened one morning, on your drive to work, or while channel surfing on your 400-channel cable-satellite or whatever-mind-numbing-media outlet you feed the desires lurking in your mental cage. The Heartbreaking National Tragedy. So sudden. So devastating. No one saw it coming. And who could believe it happened? "Honey, did you hear? It's devastating!" Even the Dr. Pill show is interrupted. Little Cousin (the incestuous child of Big Brother) comes on with pancake-makeup face and shellacked hair carefully arranged to hide his receding hairline.. <div style="text-align:center">Spanish bombs, yo te quierro infinito Yo te querda, oh mi corazon Spanish bombs, yo te quierro infinito Yo te querda, oh mi corazon</div>

**Posted:** Tue Feb 04, 2003 5:11 pm

Some of the tragedies managed to avoid being caught live-on-tape. Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee and the fire in Apollo 1, on the ground, with them sealed-in, and the technical crew hearing the three astronauts burn to death. <a href="http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollo204/gallery.html">www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pa...llery.html</a> The glow-in-the-dark Chernobyl Blues, a soviet nuclear accident. Challenger rated several songs. Here is one: <a href="http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/2475/2475506.html">artists.mp3s.com/artist_s...75506.html</a> (Former shuttle pilot and spacecraft commander Rick Hauck quoted from this during on-air coverage on Saturday) Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub19.ezboard.com/btenchimuyo79943.showUserPublicProfile?gid=pieeyeddragon>PieEyedDragon</A> <IMG SRC="http://www.ezboard.com/ezgfx/gicons/anim_1.gif" BORDER=0> at: 2/4/03 4:55:55 pm

Space Shuttle Columbia just blew-up on reentry

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