Shuttle Columbia

"NASA lost communication with space shuttle Columbia as the ship soared over Texas several minutes before landing Saturday morning. It wasn't immediately clear if there was a problem with the shuttle.

Fearing the worst, NASA ordered flight controllers to pull out emergency procedures and ordered them to retain all their records.

Columbia was aiming for a touch down at 9:16 a.m.

It was at an altitude of 200,700 feet, traveling at 12,500 mph when mission control lost contact. There was no further communication and no further tracking data.



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From ABCNEWS.com


CNN is showing video of the space shuttle breaking up, dosn't look to good.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/02/01/shuttle_exp030201

It is now suggested, based on the dropping debris, that the shuttle has blown up. The cause is still unknown. I suspect it will be a few days before they clue in to what might have caused this accident to happen.

The CBC site does suggest that an accident that occurred during take-off might have had some impact.

All I can say is I hope it is an accident.. and not something else.

Another sad day in space exploration.

The accident that happened during take-off might have involved a big piece of ice that forms on the cone of the booster rocket (it holds liquid nitrogen, if I'm correct) before take-off. During take-off, that piece might have come off of the rocket and hit the space shuttle itself (according to CNN).

As for terrorism: the shuttle flew at an altitude of about 200,000 feet (or about 60 to 70 kilometres), which is much higher than any surface-to-air missile can go.

The shuttle is 22 years old, metal fatigue might be a factor.

it was build to last 100 flights, I believe this was flight number 28

Well, it's definitely gone now. Nasa confirmed about 20 mins back :(
Cheers,
cgkanchi :(

They all willl remain our Heros FOREVER

This is truly a sad day; not only for America and Israel, but for all of mankind.

At the risk of sounding insensitive, I am left wondering how we, as a society, determine the severity of a tragedy. Any loss of live if tragic, but when I hear of a small plane with seven people on board crashing, and all the passengers perishing, I feel differently than I felt this morning when I woke up to the news that a Space Shuttle, carrying seven astronauts had been lost. I hope that we aren't seeing this as more of a tragedy because these astronauts were in a more expensive plane.

I think, however, that cost has nothing to do with how we perceive this. I am not old enough to remember the Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986, but I do remember growing up as a child dreaming of being an astronaut. I think almost everyone spent some part of their childhood dreaming of flying to the stars and being an astronaut. I think this is the reason the Columbia disaster is viewed differently than another plane crash. We all look at the Space Shuttle, and we see those dreams we had as a child. We see astronauts as heroes who do what we have always been fascinated with.

The astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia, those on Challenger, and all those who have given their life so that humanity may advance in its exploration of space and its development of technology; they truly are heroes.

My heart goes out to those who died today. I hope that we might learn from this, and use it for good, to further the advancement of our exploration. We will not forget the men and women who died today. Let us dedicate our exploration of space to them and to all those others who have died that me might prosper.

I can't even explain how i feel right now. I feel like 7 members of my own family has been lost. I am a science person, and my main goal in life is to be an Astronaut. It is not easy, and that is where all my hurting comes in. Those 6 American Astronuat, and 1 Israeli Ilan Ramon, worked very hard through out their life to accomplish that goal, which i hope to accomplish one day. I feel sooo sad about this because i admired Astronauts so much, that the fact that we don't have 7 of them with us any more makes me cry. They knew that there was a lot of risk in the mission as any Astronaut will know, but they never thought that something theyhave spent all their life working hard, stuyding, and training would take their life with a couple of minutes before touch-down. I do pray that God will accept their souls in his Kingdom, and bless them with a happy life for all eternity.Amen. -Ebo

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I feel like 7 members of my own family has been lost.

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Our thoughts and prayers goto the Family and friends of the crew..

I found out about this today only some time after it had actually happened... Similar to on Sept. 11th, I just felt sort of gut-kicked... I should feel bad but it hasn't sunk in that something of immediate and simple importance has happened in the news.

We can only hope that amidst the tragedy, more people will realize that we actually have a space program, and will see the past, present, and possible future benefits of such a system.

Here are the profiles of every member on the crew :

http://www.msnbc.com/modules/interac...0cv=CA01&cp1=1

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — “Three, two, one, we have booster ignition and liftoff of space shuttle Columbia.” That was Jan. 16th, when Columbia lifted off with its seven astronauts, five men and two women. The crew was on science mission with 80-plus experiments. As with most missions now, few Americans paid much attention until Saturday morning, when the clock started ticking on what would be a national tragedy.

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Full Story

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Feb. 2 — Countless clues left investigators with few answers Sunday as they probed what caused the breakup of space shuttle Columbia after the deadly disaster spewed debris across hundreds of miles. Officials focused immediately on the possibility that a piece of debris damaged thermal tiles on the shuttle’s left wing during liftoff far more seriously than NASA realized.

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More Predictions, full story

-inv