andrewdelvard

I'm sure we'll all be better informed in a few days...
super_si.
Just out of interest I took a look at your profile.See you're a student. Are you studying for a degree? Aeronautics? Something like that maybe?
Just wondering.

super_si

Wish I was, at some point I was very tempted and looked into it.

Unfortunately im colour blind and also short sighted, also being British doesn’t help matters. US will only take a payload specialist that’s after you have 8000 hours logged flight time

Choose the computer root over the mechanical engineering and physics routes most astronauts’ posses.

Si

pslewis

I had tea with Space Shuttle Commander Brian Duffy just before Xmas, I dont know what I was expecting - but he was one of those human beings that have something 'special' - if you know what I mean?

I suspect this crew were made of the same material, level headed, tough, courageous and very smart ......... a big loss.

Pete

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I grew up with the Shuttle, watched the first launch at primary school in Black and White , saw it piggybacked onto a jumbo coming into Manchester (in Heald Green near runway), I had the James Bond Moonraker Shuttle toy which I used to fly round with my mate who had one as well. I have always been a close follower of the Space Programme and was sixteen when Challenger crashed.

My dad picked me up at the airport today after a weeks skiing and told me the news and I am absolutely gutted, True Heros.

Last time I felt like this was when my wife rang me at work to tell me a second Concorde had crashed, into a hotel near paris killing 109 Germans, luckily it transpired that the dosey get was watching a video from the time of the Paris Crash, much embarassment on her part but today sadly history had repeated itself.

R.I.P

johnfelstead

very sad news. NASA will find the reason and will no doubt work hard to ensure this failure doesnt happen again. NASA has a superb safety record with the shuttle programme and an even better re-entry track record in general.

The crew knew the risks and gladly took them because they were exceptional people who wanted to push the boundaries of science and their personal lives. The cancelation of manned space flight would be their last wish.

May they RIP

Tiggs

all very sad

but this- "Might just have got it a fractional wrong, barrael rolled and shows over"
Did make me chuckle, all it needed was Ice Man to cough "bullsh1t" under his breath and the scene is complete.

T

ps- s.si, i understand you have since explained your comment in exciting depth so no need to defend yourself on this one

Kevin Greeley

"Nasa has a superb safety record with the shuttle programme"

2 total losses in 113 or so shuttle missions is not that safe IMHO not to mention all the other accidents.

A sad loss none the less.

unclebuck

dazz1

gosh!! <in a britt accent>

johnfelstead

2 losses in 113 missions with such a complex and dangerous craft as the shuttle is outstanding IMHO.

We arent talking about a Boing 747 here, this is something that travells at MACH 22 and endures huge temperature and G force variations, built by thousands of people and many corporations and supliers. When you compare this to the loss ratio of simple satalite launch vehicles it is a remarkable success.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

I remember the first disaster and yes the 7 up jokes were around then too but this looks like catastrophic failure due to possably damage to the left wing, its ashame that NASA never really took note of the incident in 86 and enhanced the safety of the shuttle to make the crew compartment ecjectable..... still it may now rattle around their heads to sort some means of a safety feature out for this craft (ie aircraft have ejector seats etc).

Tony

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

In the first disaster the capsual broke off, the crew were alive until impact on the ground (at a rather high speed ) but its only 12,500mph and i would have thought they could have come up with a solution to the problem by now.....


Tony

P1Fanatic

Only 12,500 mph - u r jokin right?

super_si

Saidit was mach 18.3 but also said 20.

What mph = 1 mach out of interest??

Theyve found 1 body, but judging by the bloke lifting the body bad it wasnt alot. Also think they found a helmet! which doesnt look too good either.

Si

Sheepsplitter

Very sad.

I bet they put it down to fuel-surge!

super_si

There wouldnt be any fuel mate.

Soon as it comes down its a Glider.

Sheepsplitter

super_si: That was a joke, I was referring to all the jokers on here who crash their car then blame fuel surge!!

super_si

oh

DRUNKNORGY

I got the impression from the news conference that they were implying the tile loss caused the wing to disintegrate due to the heat cutting through it like a blow torch.
Time will tell for sure.

super_si

I got impression the whole left wing failed.

reading a Express article says flying at 12000mph indicated it was out of control. 6 times faster then it should of being.

1mb pic wing

Si

[Edited by super_si - 2/2/2003 10:19:07 AM]

andrewdelvard

Iowa couple lost son on 9/11, niece in Columbia disaster.

Read this.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Astronaut Laurel Clark's death on the space shuttle Columbia was the second sudden and very public tragedy to hit Doug and Betty Haviland in 17 months.

Laurel Clark was their niece and her final moments were broadcast again and again on television Saturday, exploding white dots 200,000 feet above the earth.

On Sept. 11, 2001, television had first brought tragedy. The Havilands were watching after the World Trade Center absorbed the impact of a terrorist-piloted jetliner, burned, then collapsed with their 41-year-old son Timothy inside.

"It was a very deja vu sort of thing, you know, we watched those towers smoking and eventually collapsing and then you see this space shuttle breaking apart. Here it is all over again," said Doug Haviland, a 76-year-old retired Episcopal minister of Ames, Iowa.

Clark, 41, was one of seven astronauts on board the space shuttle when it disintegrated streaking over Texas toward a landing at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Saturday.

The Haviland's son, Timothy, worked for Marsh & McLennan Inc., on the 96th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. He and Laurel Clark were friends as well as cousins.

"Tim had planned to go the launch, but it was not to be," said his mother, Betty Haviland, 73.

Instead, Clark and her son ended up attending a memorial for Timothy in November 2001.

Timothy's wife, Amy, lost a brother in the Sept. 11 attacks. Robert W. Spear Jr., 30, was a firefighter with the New York Fire Department.

Betty Haviland couldn't but mention the slim chances of any husband and wife watching the broadcast deaths of two loved ones.

"Grief and death happens to a lot of people, but you don't usually watch it on national television and not once but a thousand times. And you can't not watch because that's your son or your niece up there," Betty Haviland said.

Doug Haviland said he spoke briefly Saturday with his sister, Marjory, Clark's mother.

"She's in the most difficult situation in this event. So I'm sure she's feeling pretty numb and swamped as we were when the 9/11 tragedy happened," Haviland said. "Hopefully, we can support her as much as possible."

Astronaut Clark was born in Ames while her father studied at Iowa State University. She lived in the central Iowa town for two years and later moved with her family to Racine, Wis., which she considered her hometown.

The Havilands said they got to see Clark at family gatherings or when she came to visit her 96-year-old grandmother at an Ames retirement home.

Doug Haviland said his last message from her was an e-mail sent to relatives from space.

"I just picked (it) up yesterday. She was, you know, thrilled taking lots of pictures and could see the area in Wisconsin on one of their pass-overs where they had lived for several years ... looking forward to sharing all this with her friends and family," Haviland said. "She died doing what she wanted to do."

andrewdelvard

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/sto...P&SECTION=HOME

scunnered

iTrader: (1)

I'm beginning to think that NASA stands for Need Another Seven Astronouts.

Sorry, that was in bad taste. I heard that after the other shuttle disaster.

Katana

That was sick..

Daz34

760mph at sea level = Mach 1

super_si

So mach 20 = 15,200 :eek

even 18 is 13,680 mph

Fatman

Since the air density is lower at those altitudes, the speed of sound is lower. Hence the reference to 12,500mph instead of 14/15,000mph.

super_si

oh right yeah did take the altitude into consideration.

Still what ever speed

Si

Daz34

The speed of sound decreases the higher the altitude.
At that kind of altitude you could be flying alot faster than sound whilst your ground speed would be subsonic.

super_si

didnt think of that tbh, Sounded like the left side was pretty damaged. Think it'll be months before any fault is found.


reading a report it was a burnt leg they found
Si

[Edited by super_si - 2/2/2003 1:42:52 PM]