Space Shuttle Columbia has apparently broken up on reentry into the atmosphere. At approximately 9:00AM EST the shuttle was passing over north central Texas traveling at 207,000 feet altitude, at approximately 12,500 miles per hour on it's way to landing at Cape Kennedy, Florida.


Nasa is warning people in the flight path that if they find pieces of the shuttle to notify local authorities and keep away from it, as much of the contents are dangerous with toxic propellants. In addition it is against federal law to touch it or remove any of the debris. Parts of the shuttle have been seen on the ground in various areas in eastern Texas.

The crew of seven is presumed lost. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.

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Now we know why life insurance for astronauts is so expensive.

my heart goes out to the families at such a tragic time.

Dont let this spin you into another 9-11 mentality. No matter what the prez tells you, Sadam was not behind this, nor was Al Quite.

This is what we get for under funding nasa. Its a great program, and deserves more funding then it gets now. The average increase that the military gets each year, is about the same as NASAs enitre budget for the year.

Also, it's interesting to note that this final Columbia flight took off on Jan. 16th at a time when the weather in that area was extremely cold. I seem to remember that this factor was what doomed the Challenger shortly after takeoff one cold morning in January of 1986. What with certain parts and components being affected by ice and the like. . . .

Still, one cannot minimize the loss to the families of the respective astronauts.

"This is what we get for under funding nasa. Its a great program, and deserves more funding then it gets now. The average increase that the military gets each year, is about the same as NASAs enitre budget for the year."

The military has a purpose. They should spend more money to send people needlessly into space while people here on the ground starve and freeze? I don't even see why it continues. Maybe I just don't see the reasoning.

W-B the O ring had to do with the liquid oxygen which is exstreamly cold, not the weather outside.

Milladrive. w/o nasa we would not have sutch a powerful military. those spy satalites, GPS satalites and so on did not just appear in space magicaly. We would not have percision guided missiles w/o thsoe satalites. Also NASA is a way for nations to come together for unselfish, scientific reasons, and work together in a peacful way.

And they are not just sending people up there for joy rides, there doing valuable scientific research. Im sure that when peopel started to sail the seas, people were like "Well WTF is that going to accomplish! There are farms to be grown here, and battles to be fought! Stop going out just to float in some water", and then somone discovered north america, and all the land out there, which lead to a new age. the same thing could happen w/ nasa, i mean if we do wind up fucking up this planet, it would be nice to esscape.

Also keep in mind, that the military regularly loses hundreds of billions of dollers each year. The old joke 3,000 for a toilet seat in a sub type thing. Rather then increasing the budget for the military they should make it more efficent/keep track of the money better. And funnel the savings to nasa

Yep! My thoughts goes to the families too on this one. May they find a way to get back on surface. It's damn hard to lose someone you love more than life.

A big from a little

T.A.

Faded,

I watched a special on the challenger. The o-rings were affected by the cold weather. The rings were expanded in the freezing temperature and couldn't hold the stress. Therefore, the fuel (liquid oxygen) leaked to the main burner causing it and the shuttle to explode.

Hail Mp3!!!

laying silent taps, lowering flag to half-staff:

Well, Faded, thanx for givin' me some insight.

Mediamaster.
From Encarta.com
"The atomic weight of oxygen is 15.9994; at atmospheric pressure, the element boils at -182.96° C (-297.33° F), melts at -218.4° C (-361.1° F), and has a density of 1.429 g/liter at 0° C (32° F)."

When the temp of the liqued oxygen is ~290°F (or probly lower then that. I think they would keep it at a lower temp because boiling oxygen is probly harder to store), i do not think that it being a "cold day" outside would effect the temp that mutch.

What happened with the O-ring, was that the rubber shrank, froze, and became brittle because it was not the right type of rubber. So the 0ring did not create a good seal, oxygen leaked out, cought on fire, and exsploded.

It being a cold day out had no effect on the O ring, because the forces it was exspiriencing from the liquid oxygen outweighed the external temperature.

You know, I figured that people would come on here and either bad mouth the space program or screw up the info about the Challenger explosion, and low-and-behold we've got both.

First off, the O-rings that have been mentioned numerous time had nothing to do with any Oxygen or burners. WTF people. The O-rings that failed were part of the solid rocket boosters which are attached to the Hydrogen and Oxygen cyrogenic tank that the shuttle sits on. The H2-O2 tank feeds fuel only to the shuttles main engines and not the solid rocket boosters. To illustrate the point, the solid rocket boosters are the "white rocket thingies" attached to the orange "tank thingie." What happened with Challenger was, the O-rings didn't seal properly causing the high temperature gas from the burning solid propellent to burn through the side of the booster. This caused the mounting strut that attaches the booster to the Oxygen-Hydrogen tank to fail which caused the solid rocket booster to collide with the tank causing it to break up. The whole thing exploded when the oxygen and hydrogen were ignited from the exhaust of both the Solid Rocket Boosters and the Shuttle.

As far as benefits from the space program, they could fill volumes and anyone who thinks this endevour doesn't benefit man-kind need only go online or to the library and educate themselves.

Comparing NASA's budget to the military is also a complete joke since NASA has very few manned operations, where as the military is the largest single employer in the government. People are the "things" that cost the most, whether through pay and support and/or buying the "tools" they need to do the job asked of them. NASA's budget is representative of mostly "unmanned" projects and missions. Their most expensive operation, per launch, is of course their only manned operation, the space shuttle. If NASA had to support operations with the number of people the military deploys year round, believe me, they'd need and deserve a budget like the military's

I woke up to the news... spent much of the day glued to the NASA Channel...

Way to go Faded for defending NASA!
NASA may have flaws but investing is space travel has got to be the most important long term investment we could possibly make.
none of the great undertakings of human kind would've ever happened if we waited until everything else was perfect before we proceeded.
The potential economic, environmental and scientific benefits to exploring space are enormous. We just have to figure out a way to move equipment and personnel out of Earth's gravity cheaply and safely.

Jerry Pournelle, the respected S-F author, has many interesting perspectives on how humans could and should explore space,(jerrypournelle.com).
He may be a bit old-school conservative for many folks, but his intelligence, experience and passion for space exploration can not be denied..

As a Canadian, I bless America for having the courage and vision to try and make access to space a reality,(three cheers to the Russians too, who are doing a lot for a country that's almost broke).

And, I've heard China will be entering the race too! I think NASA would benefit from having some real competition again.

1. Explain RIAA link

2. The shuttle had been delayed before launch because it didn't do well on pre-launch tests. Its on www.newscientist.com, they have a link to the stories covering the delays on the opening page.

I thought this was a sick joke about resurrecting the Challenger story so many years ago. It took me a few minutes to notice it was a differently named ship.



Progress is not an easy transition. Change always comes at a price...Unfortunately our explorers may die but fortunately we learn so much from our mistakes and this isn't a common problem. I'm sorry to see their loss

You're so right jkate! Let's learn from the mistakes and let's not stop the space exploring because of this (they won't).

Now - we just have to face, that where man go in man-build machinery there can and will be some stupid flaws coming from a point, that nobody and no tests can ever foreseen.

Airplanes, ships, cars, nuclear plants and the list could continue. It does not make the loss of the human lifes any less nor does it comfort the the ones, who is left behind. Nothing comforts anyone losing a loved one... Only time can ease the pain of the wounds that deep, but it will never heal.

And to be quite honoest - I give a shit about the material damages and the costs it will take to get "back in business". I give a shit about how or why. I give a shit about the budgets in NASA and ESA. I give a shit about all the scientific research lost here. It's the x year old son(s) and daughter(s), the wife or husband, brothers and sisters, I_do_give_a_shit_about. Anything else does_not_matter.

T.A.

I don't believe in being superstitious and I am no NASA rocket scientist, but I believe I would stop conducting shuttle events in the month of January.
My condolences to the families, but in the immortal words of superchicken "you knew the job was dangerous when you took it"

Nasa obviously isn't concerned about luck, or they would have had an explosion on Apollo 12B

As I said, Russia says it can support the space station, but would rather not pay for it. America is telling the other 16 countries they should all do more to pay for it. Americas going to be a bit short on cash for a while, theres an expensive enquery to sort out and the possibility of expensive serviceing on the other shuttles. The ISS hasn't really been doing much anyway. Its been running with minimal crew because of budget problems, and they have needed all their waking hours just to keep the station functional so havn't done a lot of research. A situation which might be solved with an increase in budget, or with the next round of expansion. Its not going to be easy to justify keeping a huge thing like that running if you only put three people in it.

Many people die to forward science. Men died testing things like planes, both sonic, sub-sonic and supersonic. Trains, cars, there are myriad examples. Now they are safer than ever. People have died testing things like ejection seats and even seat belts. Life goes on, and the research continues so people don't have to die from LACK of such things.
Sometimes, it takes people dying for someone to say "hey.. that's fucked up, we should fix it"
I dont' see any of that here in these posts, but the point is: sometimes the ultimate sacrifice must be and is made in the interests of science and forwarding mankinds knowledge. Sure, this was "just a landing".. the event itself does not change the significance of the act. If they died because of a faulty O-ring, then it's possible that many more lives have been saved.
I'm sorry that 7 people had to die to serve this point. I wish the families could have one last look at their loved ones. I hope that the families can one day say "My dad/mom/brother etc. was on the Columbia flight that blew up, and I'm proud of them for being there at all!"
Something that no one seems to touch on is that those seven people VOLUNTEERED to be astronauts. They (and their families) knew of the inherent risks invovled, whether it be going EV and not being able to get back, or an explosion, or even (yes I'll bring it up) something like what happened on Apollo 13. I'm not trying to take away from their sacrifice.. far from it. My point is that none of US sitting here writing in our forums and working our 9-5 days did it. WE have the luxury of having been doing whatever we were doing when this accident occured, and going back to that the very next day. They deserve every bit of respect this and any other country can offer, for VOLUNTEERING to do something that could and ultimately did end up taking their lives. Would they do it again if they hadn't have died? I can't say. But they knew from accidents like Challenger,Apollo and Gemini (to name a few) that things and sometimes will go wrong. Murphy was an optimist. Yet they still _CHOSE_ to do it.
My heartfelt respect and best wishes go to the brave men and women who every day serve Nasa and the US Space Program. Every one of them is a hero to millions of kids around the world.
Ever hear a kid say "when I grow up, I wanna be a hydroponics technician"??

Sad sad time

Btw GoldenPi...all Nasa needs is to find some way to bring interest into space exploration for more funding to happen. That was one of the reasons for the "new perfume" expierements

Sad, yep, now I'm expected to feel bad for people I never saw on TV until after this happened. I'm expected to feel worse about these people, then about my own family member, died less than a day ago.

Yes, why not spend BILLIONS, sending people to space, only to come back, without even going to another moon, another planet, another anything? I mean the economy is in ruins, millions more are unemployed, the schools are full of drugs, weapons, and there is street racing all the time, not enough cops, but why not still spend billions, that could go there, just to send people there, so they can come back, and say "I took a risk today!!!".

They are not brave. They are dumb, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

Firemen are brave. Policemen are brave. People who risk their lives to save others are brave, people who want to go someplace they never were before, that has nothing good for them, that has a high chance of killing them, for billions of dollars that belong to us are dumb.

EDIT; just read the comments, milla said the same thing I was saying, sorry

You're entitled to your opinion Thasp and there's nothing wrong with it. I guess I just see it from a different POV. Having BEEN a volunteer in a difficult/dangerous job, it's easier for me to see it than for someone who maybe hasn't(?). Billions of dollars aren't going to change the drug scen or the cop scene. It's just like the reason this website is here. PEOPLE make things happen, and while money is the grease that makes the machinery run all too often.. it's PEOPLE.. voting for things.. doing things.. that make the real difference. PEOPLE can organise neighborhood watches, vote more budget to drug rehab and unemployment, stuff like that. The space program does a lot more than just shoot people into orbit. They conduct experiments, they do research, they launch sattelites that give us better communication and stuff like that.
While I'm sorry you lost a family member, I don't see it as you're expected to feel sorry for someone you never met. You're expected to voice an opinion, or if not, then to keep quiet and let the status quo continue.
oops.. got off on a rant. Not criticising you there Thasp, just my opinion. I can agree with some of what you said tho.. so we have a quorum, and that's what it's all about.
ttmmm

I live in nacogdoches, where many pieces of the shuttle landed. I took some pictures of some of them, they're at www.sxates.com/