Space Shuttle Crash?

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Amos
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:26 PM

My god. Those beautiful, brave souls, smart, able and ready to do an incredibly challenging job. What a waste.


A

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:25 PM

Wisconsin astronaut's trip capped remarkable career
Jenny Price
Associated Press

Published Feb. 1, 2003 CLARK02
   

Laurel Clark joined the Navy to pay her way through medical school, but space beckoned as her military career drew to a close and the former flight surgeon sought a new challenge.

Clark, 41, a Racine native who graduated from Horlick High School, was among seven astronauts on board the space Shuttle Columbia when it apparently disintegrated in flames over Texas minutes before it was to land in Florida this morning. It was her first mission.

``It had been an absolutely flawless flight,'' her brother, Daniel Clark, said in a telephone interview today. ``To have this happen with 15 minutes to go until it was over was just unbelievable.''

Clark, who lives in Milwaukee and had been at Cape Canaveral for the Jan. 16 launch, got up at 5 a.m. today to monitor Columbia's progress live on his computer.

When the shuttle lost communication with NASA, he didn't realize what was happening, he said.

``It took about 10 minutes for me to catch on that something was wrong,'' he said.

Just one day before, he had received an e-mail from his sister about how much she was enjoying her experience aboard the shuttle.

``She loved it,'' he said. ``I'm just so glad she got to get up to space and got to see it because that had been a dream for a long time.''

Clark was on board to help with Columbia's science experiments.

She had already used her medical and scientific expertise to help create an astronaut treadmill in use on the international space station.

``She wasn't just intelligent,'' Dan Clark said. ``All the astronauts are just amazing people. She's just one of those people who made the right moves. She got along with people... She saw the path to be an astronaut was open - she went at it full throttle all the way.''

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST,Johnny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:16 PM

I agree SRS. It is a tragedy with almost too much geopolitical irony, as I said.

But I am also reassured, knowing that for these 7 people, they lived a life fuller than all humanity, you know? They got to fly in space. What a gift. If I had to go after 16 days of flying in space, I can't say that would be a tragedy for me personally, even though I know it would be for my survivors.

So on the personal scale of the human beings killed, I don't think it matters to them. If it did, they wouldn't have been willing to risk their lives to do it.

Their families also knew the risks, not that foreknowledge of the risk lessens their loss one iota. The immediate task at hand now is to soften the blow as much as possible for them, and comfort the living.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Ed.
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:07 PM

Amen, Bill D

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:06 PM

The poetical and larger political irony of this, with an Israeli astronaut going down over the town of Palestine, Texas may end up being a focal point for news abroad.

SRS

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:02 PM

There was an Israeli astronaut on board. The shit is going to hit the fan and lots of consipracy theories are going to hatch now. Several Texans on board also, apparently.

Maggie

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:00 PM

what the mem & women who get into the space shuttle do is comparable to explorers who have been sailing the seas for thousands of years. They know it is dangerous, but they go anyway, and each time they do, they add to the total of knowlege and human accomplishment.

Those who fly into space are merely more visable and command our notice.....I mourn their loss and share the sadness at their sacrifice......and I know, as soon as it is deemed proper, others will fill their places and continue the dream.

We cry, and then we keep on, as we have always done.............

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:00 PM

I was up very late last night (burst water heater) so didn't get up early today. I woke at 8, but went back to sleep. The explosion is evidently what awoke me, but I live near the freeway so there is more ambient noise anyway that I'd have to sort the explosion from. The local weather folks had been taping the image of the shuttle going overhead for their news programs. It's usually a non-event that is part of the weather cast. For local news, go to The Fort Worth Star Telegram. They're telling us that anyone who finds anything on the ground is to leave it alone and alert authorities. Aparently from South Fort Worth (where I am) across to Nacogdoches (a couple of hundred miles at least east of here) and beyond there is a debris field.


Maggie

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:51 AM

I blame the Alien and Bush Conspiracy.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST,Agnostic
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:50 AM

I blame God

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: InOBU
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:46 AM

Dear Guest... having written songs about the civilian casualties in Afganistan and other American wars... and posted them here...I offer that you may wish to sit a while and concider you next comments in reguards to weather or not you consider Americans to be your fellow humans. If you do not, well, you have just taken sides in a war, and I have nothing to say to you other than I am opposed to war. We have seven families watching thier husbands wives and children in great peril. You have a hard heart to speak of the in humanity of others.
Larry

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: greg stephens
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:42 AM

Deepest sympathy. Ignore the tossers.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:37 AM

Why didn't we have any such threads when America were dropping bombs on Afghanistan?

This thread reinforces my opinion that American lives matter more than others to Americans

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: InOBU
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:35 AM

does someone have the Air force verse... those in peril in te air?
Larry

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: InOBU
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:32 AM

FOR THOSE IN PERIL ON THE SEA
(William Whiting)

Eternal Father, strong to save
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave.
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep
Oh hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word
Who walked'st on the foaming deep
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep.
Oh hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease
And give, for wild confusion, peace
Oh hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.

O Trinity of love and power
Our brethren shield in danger's hour
From rock and tempest, fire and foe
Protect them wheresoe'er they go.
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Sorcha
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:28 AM

Johnny, I read it the way you intended it, not the way jimlad interpreted it. It is ironic and it won't suprise me if They manage to find some way to blame it on Iraq. I'm not saying They Will, or that it is; just that it will not surprise me if it happens. Sad day.....

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: InOBU
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:25 AM

PS hope for slow enough to eject, i mean...

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: InOBU
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:24 AM

A witness 150 miles south east of Dallas says the wreakage was making S turns, the manuver that the shuttle uses to slow. lets hope for hope. Larry

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:23 AM

I am most saddened for the families and friends of the crew and would encourage those of Faith to take a few minutes to ask God to be there for them on this horrific day and in the coming days.

Bobert

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST,Johnny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:22 AM

From CBS:

"On Jan. 16, shortly after Columbia lifted off, a piece of insulating foam on its external fuel tank came off and was believed to have struck the left wing of the shuttle. Leroy Cain, the lead flight director in Mission Control, assured reporters Friday that engineers had concluded that any damage to the wing was considered minor and posed no safety hazard."

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:18 AM

What a terrible tragedy. Aine, thanks for the local updates.

Perhaps in finding some irony in certain aspects, it helps to try to understand and/or cope with such horrific news.

May the god of their hearts have helped them and seen them safely through such a tragic transition.

kat

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST,Johnny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:17 AM

I also heard that there were to be some pilot experiments done during this mission, though the talking head was speculating. Apparently this was the pilot's first time in space.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Midchuck
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:17 AM

"If blood be the price of Admiralty,
Lord God, we have paid in full..."

(R.K.)

Peter.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:16 AM

They came in at the wrong angle

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST,Johnny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 11:15 AM

You are entitled to your opinions jimmyt. But how fair are you being by trashing my honest response to this tragic even, by declaring it to be in poor taste?

I responded to this spectacular event (perhaps you haven't seen the film footage of the explosion, the stories of the new Homeland Security minister rushing to the White House, the eyewitness accounts of a sound like a sonic boom and burning wreckage drifting to the ground. I responded by invoking the metaphor of Shakespearean or Greek tragedies, both of which include geopolitical ironies. Apparently, you lack familiarity with those sorts of metaphors. You might want to expand your reading list.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: jimmyt
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:55 AM

Sorry Guest Johnny, but any irony that you find in this tragedy trying to wave some damn antiwar flag or Bush/Sharon moralistic crap is at best in very poor taste

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:43 AM

CNN is now reporting that residents as far east as Shreveport, Louisiana, reported seeing and feeling an apparent explosion.

What the hell would cause an explosion of that magnitude?

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST,Johnny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:32 AM

Washington Post's latest update now includes these eyewitness comments:

Residents of north Texas heard "a big bang" Saturday about the time the space shuttle Columbia disappeared on its way to a landing at Cape Canaveral.

"It was like a car hitting the house or an explosion. It shook that much," said John Ferolito, 60, of Carrolton, north of Dallas.

Gary Hunziker in Plano said he saw the shuttle flying overhead. "I could see two bright objects flying off each side of it," he told The Associated Press. "I just assumed they were chase jets."

"I was getting read to go out and I heard a big bang and the windows shook in the house," Ferolito told The AP. "I was getting ready to go out and I heard a big bang and the windows shook in the house. I thought it was a sonic boom."

Bob Multer of Palestine, Texas, told CNN he saw what looked like a high-flying jet and heard a noise.

"It would be very similar to a tornado, it was very loud and intense," Multer said. "It was loud enough and it was low enough that it shook the building."

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Áine
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:22 AM

The debris is not falling over the DFW area where the shuttle was filmed breaking up in the air. Local news reports are saying that debris is falling over a large area 100+ miles southeast of Dallas/Fort Worth -- towns mentioned are Athens, New York, Nacogdoches, College Station, and Palestine (pronounced pal-a-steen).

No injuries on the ground so far, but a bank building in New York, Texas, may have been hit with a very large piece of debris.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: GUEST,Johnny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:17 AM

Sorry, should have said the geopolitical irony of it all.

This is very sad. I love the space program, despite it's military uses, because it continues to instill cosmic dreams. May the astronauts all rest in peace, and their families find solace in the months and years ahead.

But this is just chilling, my sense of this accident (which was instantaneous as I heard the news) as tragic cosmic theatre--the crashing to earth of the Bush/Sharon military domination of the Middle East.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:15 AM

I read news here and then go turn on CNN. They're showing large bits of debris falling the long miles to the ground.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: jimlad
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:11 AM

Another Sad,Sad day for America,Keep the faith Yanks

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:08 AM

This is surreal. I am listening to NPR and they are all happily talking about the Columbia being ready to land in 13 minutes!
But The Washington Post says otherwise.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: Áine
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:05 AM

The video that you all are seeing on CNN and other television new stations was taken by an amateur photographer, who filmed the images just west of Fort Worth. The local TV station is reporting that 911 emergency calls are coming in from Palestine, Texas, which is about 120 miles southeast of Dallas/Fort Worth, claiming that debris is falling to the ground there.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle Crash?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:04 AM

Shit

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle? Oh shit
From: GUEST,Johnny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:03 AM

Oh the irony of it all--over Texas, first Israeli astronaut, the "terrorist threat"...

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle? Oh shit
From: GUEST,Johnny
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 10:01 AM

From the Washington Post:

NASA declared an emergency after losing communication with space shuttle Columbia as the ship soared over Texas several minutes before its expected landing time Saturday morning.

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.

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle? Oh shit
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 09:59 AM

The NASA spokeswoman says that its 'broken up' and all are dead

Subject: RE: Space Shuttle? Oh shit
From: Sorcha
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 09:58 AM

It did crash, then? I haven't heard.......

Subject: Space Shuttle? Oh shit
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 09:50 AM

Not sure what to say. Hope it doesn't put space effort back too far. Sorry to the families of evevyone involved.