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Updated Information On Columbia Shuttle Tragedy
Thanks to all the readers who have sent links related to today's shuttle disaster. An Associated Press story carried on Salon says that an independent board (with members from the Air Force, Navy, Transportation Department and other federal agencies) has been appointed to investigate the disaster. CNN is carrying official statement from President Bush. Rediff.com has an article on the life of Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla. borisonanovitch points to "more info on the science aboard Columbia and links to other NASA research." fabel reminds us "Most of the media is focusing on the slight damage that ocurred at takeoff (that NASA discounted at the time) but STS-107 was *delayed* for 6 months (original launch date 19 Jul 2003) Update: 02/01 23:51 GMT by T : [Note, should read "2002."] because of
cracks in the propellant feed lines to the 3 main engines. A defect that could have caused catastrophic failure. Did the fix work or not?"
Unfortunately, the article references discounted stories about the U.S. attempt to militarize space. Why is the spin in the Arab world so demonizing of the U.S.? Oh, let me guess...the Israeli astronaut.
I just went to watch the Star Wars movie I recorded on my TiVo today. Looks like WGN Superstation think Star Wars: A New Hope had to be canceled because of the shuttle disaster. Seems like showing space movies is insensitive.
Especially when 'god's vengeance' is so damn pathetic, when it comes down to it.
Damn straight. Estimates are as high as 1.5 million dead as the direct result of U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq after the first Gulf War. And these estimates are by now a year old, and the sanctions continue.
God's vengence would be more along the lines of wiping out one of our major cities I would think.
Although, the Israeli on the Shuttle was the one who participated in the unprovoked attack on the Iraqi nuclear facility in 1981, well before Iraq demonstrated extra-territorial ambitions in the region. Picking on the other six astronauts would be foul work, but Ramon probably deserved what he got.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
OK, time to burn karma. I don't care.
Take a look at these assholes in iraq celebrating this tragedy at Reuters
What f'ing assholes. Of course, next week if there is footage of celebrations from iraqis there no doubt will be a mass-email campaign trying to deny these celebrations as racist CNN coverage of "Celebration of some soccer victory from 1987" even though they will be wearing brittney spears t-shirts, having contemporary movie/music posters in the background, dancing atop vehicles from 2000+, etc.
I am referring of course to the footage from Sept. 11th, 2001 that showed Palestinians celbrating our tragedy. They later tried to deny this as a "fake" - that CNN used old footage of "a 1987 soccer victory celebration" until it was seen that a) no one in 1987 would be referring to Osama Bin Laden by name b) one boy was wearing a Brazilian soccer star's jersey (Ronaldo, who was maybe 6 in 1987) and c) there were modern cars appearing not available in 1987.
Don't listen to these fools going on about how the shuttle was too high to be shot down, or other such nonsense.
The shuttle could have easily been sabotaged. And last I checked, sabotage on this scale readily qualifies as an act of terrorism (then again, what doesn't these days?)
Israel is a very controversial topic in America these days, the propaganda we get in the media notwithstanding. Is it possible that one individual out of the hundreds if not thousands of people who had access to Columbia or her many systems and components had an opportunity to inflict a fatal blow to the craft? Of course it is.
Everybody is pointing at the piece of insulation that fell off during ascent as the cause, and I agree it looks likely, but that doesn't rule out terrorism. The booster could easily have been tampered with in some way designed to cause exactly the sort of failure we've witnessed.
I don't believe it was terrorism, and I will chafe at any such suggestion from the Bush Administration that it was in fact terrorism if and when they offer it, but it can hardly be ruled out, let alone dismissed or even mocked as we've seen so many here do.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
how, exactly, did this get modded as "insightful?"
how, exactly, do slashdot "moderators" think that a comment saying that bush caused this crash shows any insight into anything but a warped, frustrated person's bizarre ramblings?
(not to mention the fact that NO PRESIDENT OPERATES IN A VACUUM -- THERE IS A CONGRESS THAT HAS TO AGREE WITH ALL OF THIS, AND LAST TIME I CHECKED, THE BUDGETS NASA HAS BEEN WORKING UNDER UP TO NOW HAVE BEEN OK'D BY A DEMOCRATICALLY CONTROLLED SENATE. not to say it's their fault too, just pointing out the absurd logic)
jrbd sickens me. and those of you who modded this up are on the same list.
Mindy: "Well...desserts aren't always right." Homer: "But they're so sweet!"
Yeah, right. Nobody cares about the hundreds of people shot every day in the USA, but then 7 people die, and everybody cares and "god bless blabla".
So, those who do care about those 7 astronauts are in fact the heartless people, they only care about 7 people when they should care about hundreds of people. People who care about neither of them are only used to the cruelty of reality.
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
...laughed when our Ariane 5+ exploded a couple of months ago. So, do you see me laughing now?
Not quiet, but don't expect me to shed tears. The fact that this was a science mission is an exception from the rule. Most of the time, shuttles drop off new military satellites into space. Of the 7 crew members, 6 were members of armed forces. One even of special fame: the israeli on board dropped his bombs in every major war Israel has fought in the last decades. Even when Israel bombed down that iraqi nuclear reactor in 1982 that allegedly could be used for the production of plutonium for weapons. It couldn't. And while we're at it: everyone's crying out loud over 7 people, when in just 6 weeks, tens of thousands will die in Iraq, and nobody will give a damn. Don't you think there's something wrong here?
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?