- This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 21 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
🙁 dear lord…. 🙁 i cannot believe i’m seeing this. i want to cry… 😥 I put the ITV news channel on just after 2pm, and heard about how the shuttle was coming in to land after a succesful mission, and left the channel on-eager to hear more about the mission. then i heard they’d lost contact. landing time passed. minutes ticked by, and as they did, the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach just got worse and worse. i’m so sorry, you guys in the States.. 😥 and to the families of all involved. my heart goes out to you 🙁
I would also like too offer my sincerest condolences to both the families of these brave men and women, and too the American nation and those who frequent this board.
This is shocking news, but I do hope that America continues to lead the way in this and many other ways, as they always have done.
There’s not much else I can say as I’m still shocked, except to say God bless America, from one of your cousins in the UK, as always …. we will stand beside you during this time.
ADM
I hope this doesn’t stop the space program like the Challenger disaster did. There are still three astronauts on Space Station Alpha.I heard Bush say that the space program will continue, although I imagine it will be some time before the Shuttle program get’s going again.
This is no time for recriminations, but I was very surprised too learn that this Shuttle is the very same Columbia that was first launched in 1981, 20 years seems like a long time for what is one of the most sophisticated aircraft/space vehicle around. I would’ve have thought that Shuttle’s would be retired after 8-10 years service, especially when you consider the forces these craft are hit with during the launch, spaceflight and re-entry.
I think with Ion engines now being developed, it might be time to strap one on too a new kinda shuttle, give it a short burst and it should be able to break out of the atmosphere without the use of traditional and somewhat unreliable chemical rockets.
ADM👿 i heard on the radio today that some pieces of wreckage are going up for sale on the Net. sick b******s. as good as grave robbery. they want stringing up, along with anyone twisted enough to buy it 😡
Flamegrape wrote:People can’t sell Columbia wreckage. It’s against federal law.
They shouldn’t, but it isn’t going to stop them. If there is a profit to be made, the scum will be there to make it. The more misery involved the higher the profit and the more vultures that want ‘their own piece of history’. Capitalism at it’s best my dears.
The world is full of sick bastards, and I’m afraid there isn’t a great deal we can do about it.
This might be what happened!?
“This video grab from the Israeli television Channel 1 on Monday shows the U.S. space shuttle Columbia with what is believed to be two cracks on its left wing. The photograph was extracted from footage taken by a camera on board the shuttle during a live satellite video conference between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Colonel Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli to travel to space. Photo: Israeli TV Channel 1”
Emailed to me by a buddy in New York, Jamie.
wonder what could have caused that? they have been saying today that NASA scientists no longer think that the accident was anything to do with the piece of foam insulation which came off and struck that wing during take-off- it was too small (the size of a suitcase). I don’t know…could be just a coincidence… Despite the airframe supposedly being could for 100 missions, Columbia was a craft which was over 20 years old and would have undergone a tremendous amount of stress every time she flew. It was shocking to hear just how many faults had been found in the shuttle fleet over the past couple of years. Columbia alone had something like 3000 wiring faults 😮 can’t remember the full list of probs. However what i did find really shocking was the fact that once the craft was in orbit, there would have been no provision on the ISS for them to dock and make repairs, nor was there any means just for the shuttle crew to get home from the ISS if necessary. maybe it’s time for those in charge of building the station to think about providing future shuttle missions emergency access to the ISS . it just seems so sad that those poor sods were doomed the second they left the launchpad 🙁
It’s still hard too believe that Columbia was still being used after 22 years service, it does seem to be asking for trouble, yet with Nasa suffering budget slashes it’s somewhat understandable.
Even though it was an old bird, it does seem the accident was not really down to her age but more due too a freak occurence. Back when she was launched she lost 20,000 tiles, yet she came back in one piece, which says to me that the shuttle’s can take a good battering before anything goes wrong.
It’s great to hear that Bush has promised Nasa additional funds to keep the space program going, and we might see the next generation shuttle, by the way you can see what that one looks like by watching the Enterprise intro, and according to that the next ship up should be Cochrane’s warp ship!!!
The one thing that I did like was that this crew was an international one, the joining of Israel, India and America, I hope that one day all the space agencies (America, Russia, China, Britain and France) will join together so that funding won’t be so difficult and we can look forward to going bodly where no person has gone before.
ADM
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.