Latest Columbia News

Russia is suspending its space tourist program, for fairly obvious reasons. An NYT story notes that the obsolete but reliable computers driving the shuttle are to be examined as part of the inquiry. But most interestingly, a story in Aviation Week claims that a tracking camera trained on the shuttle detected damage to the wing prior to the breakup.

Comments

Does that mean...?

[levik]

If Russia is canning space tourism, does that mean we're stuck with Lance Bass?

Re:Columbia news of my own

[Anonymous Coward]

We're surprised you even have a wife j/k

And now for what (may have) REALLY happened. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

Okay. I have two interesting items for everybody here. --I've been waiting around for a few bits and pieces to line up before posting this soon-to-be modded into dust article.

Read fast, kids, this one is not likely going to survive long around these parts where foam, mini-meteors and 'old computers' rule the roost.

In reverse chronological order of appearance. . .

Item number one: The below clipped from photos taken; orignal story here.

Top investigators of the Columbia space shuttle disaster are analyzing a startling photograph -- snapped by an amateur astronomer from a San Francisco hillside -- that appears to show a purplish electrical bolt striking the craft as it streaked across the California sky.

The digital image is one of five snapped by the shuttle buff at roughly 5: 53 a.m. Saturday as sensors on the doomed orbiter began showing the first indications of trouble. Seven minutes later, the craft broke up in flames over Texas.

The photographer requested that his name not be used and said he would not release the image to the public until NASA experts had time to examine it.

Although there are several possible benign explanations for the image -- such as a barely perceptable jiggle of the camera as it took the time exposure -- NASA's zeal to examine the photo demonstrates the lengths at which the agency is going to tap the resources of ordinary Americans in solving the puzzle.

Late Tuesday, NASA dispatched former shuttle astronaut Tammy Jernigan, now a manager at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, to the San Francisco home of the astronomer to examine his digital images and to take the camera itself to Mountain View, where it was to be transported by a NASA T-38 jet to Houston this morning.

A Chronicle reporter was present when the astronaut arrived. First seeing the image on a large computer screen, she had one word: "Wow."

Jernigan, who is no longer working for NASA, quizzed the photographer on the aperture of the camera, the direction he faced and the estimated exposure time -- about four to six seconds on the automatic Nikon 880 camera. It was mounted on a tripod, and the shutter was triggered manually.

In the critical shot, a glowing purple rope of light corkscrews down toward the plasma trail, appears to pass behind it, then cuts sharply toward it from below. As it merges with the plasma trail, the streak itself brightens for a distance, then fades.

"It certainly appears very anomalous," said Jernigan. "We sure will be very interested in taking a very hard look at this."

Jernigan flew five shuttle missions herself during the 1990s, including three on Columbia. On her last flight, the pilot of the craft was Rick Husband, who was at the controls when Columbia perished.

"He was one of the finest people I could ever hope to know," said Jernigan.

It was an astounding day for the San Francisco photographer, who said he had not had any success in reaching NASA through its published telephone hot lines.

He ultimately reached investigators through a connection with a relative who attends the same church as former astronaut Jack Lousma, who flew 24 million miles in the Skylab 3 mission in 1973.

Lousma put him in direct touch with Ralph Roe Jr., chief engineer for the shuttle program at Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston.

After a series of telephone conversations Tuesday afternoon, the photographer had a veteran shuttle mission specialist knocking at his door by dinnertime. Within hours, he was left with a receipt, and his camera was on its way to Houston.

Item number two: From a channeling experiment in Florida. . .

Cassiopaeans comment on the Shuttle "Event":
Session: February 2, 2003

Q: One of the first questions we want to ask tonight is about the event of the Space Shuttle that was lost. First, was it an explosion, or was it just disintegration, or breaking up?
A: It was a "direct hit."

Q: A direct hit by what?
A: EM pulse.

Q: (S) What was the source of the EM pulse?
A: 3/4th density Consortium.

Q: Well, I thought Bush was a puppet of the Consortium? (A) Well, we know that the military are scrambling planes to go after UFOs...there are even reports of firing on them and there have been reports of military jets being disintegrated by UFOs. The UFOs are, somehow, in cahoots with the consortium. It seems that Bush and the gang are not in control of the Consortium and maybe they needed to be "reminded?"
A: It is not so much that he needs to be reminded, as he needs to be stimulated to react.

Q: (L) You once before said that Bush knows very little anyway - or that the "White House" level is pretty much in the dark about the plans of the Consortium - even if they are carrying them out. So, you are suggesting that they are being driven by forces of which they are unaware and do not understand?
A: Exactly. Bush is a "reaction machine."

Q: (L) I would like to know about this supposed "body guard" of Saddam recently presented by MOSSAD? Was he one of Saddam's former bodyguards?
A: To an extent, yes. But certainly not in the way presented. Just remember this: if pilots can be conditioned to commandeer airliners that will fly into certain death, how hard is it to "Produce" a "bodyguard?"

Q: (L) Piece of cake to produce a bodyguard, I guess. (A) He is saying exactly what the Israelis want him to say. He is not revealing any particular data that counts. It is just general things. Anybody could say such things and be called a "bodyguard." (L) Exactly. Okay, you say that an EM pulse brought down the shuttle. (A) Where did the EM pulse come from?
A: From space based satellite.

Q: (A) Does NASA know about the cause?
A: There are some who suspect.

Q: (L) Which explains why they are so anxious to convince everyone that it was NOT sabotage. Like Wellstone's death, there was "no question" about it being a terrorist attack. The likelihood is that the Bush Junta was behind Wellstone's death. In both cases they "know" the cause and want to divert the attention away from it. But, in the case of the shuttle, they aren't "dirty," but they most definitely do NOT want anyone to realize that they also are not "in charge." It makes me think of the remark the C's made a few years ago about the reason for the Military Industrial Complex build-up and manipulations. C's said that the REAL enemy is "out there" and that war was just a "cover" to prevent the masses from realizing what they were really doing. Maybe Bush and the gang are really convinced, in their own minds, that they are acting to "protect" humanity from this threat. Meanwhile, they are simply being driven to fulfill the agenda of the Consortium. And it is so interesting that the shuttle broke up over Palestine, Texas... as though it was saying to Bush: this is what is going to happen to you: Palestine is going to be your destruction. But, of course, Bush would be incapable of perceiving it in that context. Is it so that a message was intended in this event?
A: As always, confusion is the mask.

Q: (L) In other words, everyone's reaction to the event will depend on their own context. There is the view that it was a "message to Bush." Bush and gang will, of course, see it only as a stimulus to faster and more "decisive" military action. So, it will really work on them the way it is wanted. (A) And of course, we wonder how they will make use of this event.

A: The primary effect among the masses will be shock, thus making them less resistant to Bush's policies. Still other groups will see the clear threat to Bush and Co. from their activities. Bush and Co. will, of course, seek to capitalize on the event even while remaining in the dark as to its meaning. But there most certainly is awareness among them that there is a "Maverick" element at loose. Bush has even "felt" a bit of primal fear in respect of this event.

There. Now didn't that make your day more interesting?

You're welcome.

-Fantastic Lad

Re:No Rescue?

[MessiahXI]

I've always thought it a good idea to maintain a standby shuttle that just needs fuel and a program to go into operation.

holy shit! you've solved it!! why didn't NASA think of that?!?

[sigh] why doesn't anyone seem to understand that, with the shuttle at least, it doesn't work that way. Do you have any idea how much preparing a shuttle launch costs? And that, in order for the rescue to be effective (ie, arrive before the Columbia runs out of air, etc) that Atlantis would have had to launch with almost zero pre-flight testing. That sounds like a great idea!! Nevermind that it takes like a week to get the thing on the launchpad.

So basically, you think it's a good idea to roughly double the expense of every shuttle launch, so that in the event of a problem, you can attempt some half-witted rescue plan that has almost no chance of success. ("catch them in the cargo bay"??? please!)

Have you even read any of this thread?

Omens in the sky!

[ArsSineArtificio]

As we speak, I have a terrible sense of foreboding, because last weekend a stunning omen occurred in this country. Anyone who thinks symbolically had to be shocked by the explosion of the Columbia shuttle, disintegrating in the air and strewing its parts and human remains over Texas -- the president's home state!

Mehercule! And Texas is a tiny place, too, far outside the space shuttle flight path! What were the odds!

If there was ever a sign for a president and his administration to rethink what they're doing, this was it.

Yep, you've pegged it. Jove is angry at the Bush Administration. The proper rite of opening the Doors of Janus was doubtless not properly followed. I suggest a propitial lectisternia.

c'mon

[filmsmith]

Mod parent up. I'm an apple user and I can't stop laughing.

Re:Fairly Obvious Reasons?

[Spackler]

Actually, these are fairly insightful. Thanks. I didn't realize how wrapped up in the world plan this all was. Ixohoxi, and Lawgiver1, have opened my eyes.

I appreciate Ixohoxi taking the time to point out the rational explanation to this disaster. It had nothing to do with tiles, but numbers. The "Real Insight" link in his post directed me to some wonderful info. In fact, it helped me decipher him. His usernumber is 170656. Add these together, and you get 25. Genesis 2:5 clearly states: when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up.

Understanding this "herb" of which God speaks, made me understand that the bible clearly states that Ixohoxi is growing pot in his backyard. Furthermore, the Balognians used Ixohoxi to describe as the collector of fluid used to clean out the whore of balogna's vagina.

You must send this research to 10 other email addresses, or God will drop a space shuttle on you.

Re:This has to be tough for familes to hear...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Opfer müssen gebracht werden!", which roughly translates to 'Sacrifices must be made.'

I guess the exclamation mark gets lost in the translation.

Re:Expect fianl report in 6 months

[Shanep]

It's a little surprising to me that we have not heard anything about a Shuttle equivalent of an airliner's black box. Surely such a thing should exist on the Shuttle, where risk of a catastrophe is much higher, and measures ought to be taken to make sure such things do not happen again.

Hell, trains in Australia use black box recorders. The shuttles were using TASCAM recording equipment back in the early days and I would highly doubt that the shuttle does not have a black box. With NASA being very military in operation, it wouldn't surprise me if they had MANY black boxes distributed around the shuttle. Relying on comms back to Earth for this type of thing is laughable. I'm sure that Earth based telemetry would be used as a backup and to help ground based crew to resolve potential issues though.

Having worked with USN equipment and some NASA methodologies, if they really don't have anything like a black box within the space shuttle, then they've lost a huge amount of my respect and I'd have to wonder what the hell has happened to them.