Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
Thread - Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
On 2/2/2003, Ian
Musgrave posted:
Sadly.
The space shuttle Columbia, carrying a crew of seven, broke up on re-entry
200,000 feet above Texas. There are no survivors.
http://www.cnn.com
Sunday February 2, 05:29 AM
Space shuttle disaster, seven dead
Space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames as it streaked over Texas
toward its landing strip on Saturday, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
"It's gone," said a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said debris from the shuttle, spread across Texas and apparently
some other states, had been positively identified, and there was no hope
for either the shuttle or its crew.
Six Americans and the first Israeli astronaut were on board.
At Kennedy Space Centre, the US flag next to the countdown clock was lowered
to half-mast. NASA officials wouldn't confirm that the crew was dead but
said President George W. Bush would be making an announcement.
Administration officials said there was no immediate indication of terrorism.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no threat
was made and the shuttle was out of range of a surface-to-air missile.
Columbia had been expected to land in Florida at 9:16am on Saturday (0116
AEDT Sunday).
At 9am, Mission Control lost all data and contact with the crew. At the
same time, residents in north Texas reported hearing "a big bang".
Television footage showed a bright light over Texas followed by smoke plumes
streaking diagonally through the sky. Debris appeared to break off into
separate balls of light as it continued downward. NASA declared an emergency
after losing contact with the crew and sent search teams to the Dallas-Fort
Worth area.
Residents of Nacogdoches, Texas, said they found bits of metal strewn across
the city. Dentist Jeff Hancock said a metal bracket about 30cm long crashed
through his office roof.
"It's all over Nacogdoches," said barber shop owner James Milford. "There
are several little pieces, some parts of machinery ... there's been a lot
of pieces about three feet (one metre) wide."
Two hours after the shuttle had been expected to land, the giant screen
at the front of Mission Control showed a map of the south-west United States
and what should have been Columbia's flight path.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe was meeting with the astronauts' families,
who had been waiting at Kennedy Space Centre for the shuttle's landing,
spokeswoman Melissa Motichek said.
"A contingency for the space shuttle has been declared," Mission Control
somberly repeated over and over as no word or any data came from Columbia.
It was the 113th flight in the shuttle program's 22 years and the 28th
flight for Columbia, NASA oldest shuttle.
In 42 years of US human space flight, there had never been an accident
during the descent to Earth or landing. On January 28, 1986, space shuttle
Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.
Yahoo Australian News
http://au.news.yahoo.com/030202/2/mi8q.html
Live updates from mission control
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/status.html
Biographies of the crew:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030201columbia/crew.html
Zero
Sum posted this, the final thought, on the subject:
The following
is about all I want to say on the disaster...
Oh! I
have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced
the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward
I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split
clouds - and done a hundred things
You have
not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in
the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased
the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager
craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up
the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped
the windswept heights with easy grace
Where
never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while
with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high
unsurpassed sanctity of space,
Put out
my hand and touched the face of God.
-- Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee
I'm not
so much concerned by the loss of the seven, I think many of us would havegone
along for the experience even knowing what would happen.
More glory
to them!
But I'm
seriously concerned if it involves damage or the death of our dreams.
