blike Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 NASA lost contact with the orbiter during this morning around 9 am when the shuttle was scheduled to land. Search and rescue teams have been activated in Dallas and Fort Worth. 'Columbia was at an altitude of 200,700 feet over north-central Texas at a 9 a.m., traveling at 12,500 mph when mission control lost contact and tracking data. ' Update (fafalone): Wreckage from the shuttle continues to fall; there is no hope of crew survival from that altitude. A news conference is scheduled for 3PM. It may take days to ascertain what specifically went wrong, however there is some speculation that it may have been caused by a piece of fuel tank insulation that struck the left wing during liftoff, but NASA officials allowed the mission to resume, confident that there was no safety risk.
PogoC7 Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 This is a good example of peace not war. If America didn't have to put so much money into national defence, then maybe they would fund the space program better. This suttle which saddly disinigrated today, was built in the 1970's and even then the cost were cut on the program and builders had to find alternative resources. Although, even with cut cost, the space shuttle is a work of art. 98% reuseable; which was it's main purpose. Two Questions? How can we more effecently put people in space? When will the time come to fund space programs correctly? *I guess the two question kindof cancel eachother out*;-)
fafalone Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 Originally posted by PogoC7 This is a good example of peace not war. If America didn't have to put so much money into national defence, then maybe they would fund the space program better. This suttle which saddly disinigrated today, was built in the 1970's and even then the cost were cut on the program and builders had to find alternative resources. Although, even with cut cost, the space shuttle is a work of art. 98% reuseable; which was it's main purpose. Two Questions? How can we more effecently put people in space? When will the time come to fund space programs correctly? *I guess the two question kindof cancel eachother out*;-) This had nothing to do with spending money on war or money in general. Furthermore, instead of blaming war for taking money, blame welfare and social security, helping people who are generally to stupid to help them selves is a huge and wrong drain on money.
PogoC7 Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 I was just listening to the radio while working out and I hear a reporter ask NASA officals "if the had anytype of Black Box on board". NASA says "no, we do not have any hard disk recording device, we do have the ship wired, but we doubt it is still intact. I don't know if it's because they are entering the atmoshpere, that they can't establish any kind of satellite comunication. I would think the Space Shuttle would have some sort of "Real Time" recording device. They said they are trained to deal with problem in spilt seconds, but how can you do that without some sort of "real time" comunication. They also mentioned about the faom hitting one of the wing of the shuttle at take off. Their responce was; "The whole space community got together and watch the take off right after it happened. And concluded that it did not cause any threat to the shuttle." Understandable, but if they deal with matter like they said during the confreance, then would they have some way to shuttle the ship unmanned? I'm not critizising NASA by any means and what happened today will take weeks to understand, I am just posing some thoughts. I know that NASA is a very close community and they are all very saddened by this event. About the people still on-board the international space station. Well, they are not leaving on schedule because of obvious reason, but people ask about their safey (supplies, ect...) Well, America has a drone ship with supplies takingoff tomorrow, it was scheduled to do so before this morning. So, on the other hand. NASA seems ready to deal with situations and this is a example of how America isn't beaten that easily. NASA will always remember the men and women lost, but the brave will not be grounded for long.
fafalone Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 The real time telemetry is transmitted directly to NASA.
PogoC7 Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 Originally posted by fafalone This had nothing to do with spending money on war or money in general. Furthermore, instead of blaming war for taking money, blame welfare and social security, helping people who are generally to stupid to help them selves is a huge and wrong drain on money. What is a proplem of overpopulation. But I see were you coming from. Restructure programs and find money.
PogoC7 Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 Originally posted by fafalone The real time telemetry is transmitted directly to NASA. They say they had no communication with the crew before the accident.
fafalone Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 Well obviously as the shuttle disintegrates the communication system isn't going to function all too well.
PogoC7 Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 Let just be serious. NASA probably has recordings and they arn't going to give them to the public. It's obvious. It just happened seven hours ago. How can they not have some sort of advanced recording "real time" device on the Space Shuttle.
fafalone Posted February 1, 2003 Posted February 1, 2003 They do. It's just not designed to survive an explosion of the space shuttle at 203000ft and 18 times the speed of sound. If you think you could design something that could, I'm sure NASA would have a job for you.
blike Posted February 1, 2003 Author Posted February 1, 2003 I'm kinda with Pogo,. I mean, I'm SURE they know a little more about it than we do, even if there is no "black box". I think they normally lose communication when they come through part of the atmosphere (ionosphere I think), and I think thats above 200,000 feet, so maybe they didn't have communication, and just never regained it like they should have. Or, maybe they have it, and just don't want to release it before preliminary investigations.
Giles Posted February 2, 2003 Posted February 2, 2003 Surely they have to both find the black box (that's going to scatter debris fairly widely) and then analyse what you might call 'quite a lot' of data? (i think it quite possible they do have recording devices that could survive)
fafalone Posted February 2, 2003 Posted February 2, 2003 Well sorry if I said they don't have a recording device like a black box. I guess I should ask you for information about the space shuttle before stating what NASA officials said in the press conference I watched today. The data recorders on board are not designed to survive this kind of thing, but the cause of the accident would lie in the real time data that's transmitted to NASA. One can deduce whatever caused the problem led to the communication loss, and the communication loss wouldn't have happened before there was a problem... but what do NASA officials know... you guys obviously know alot more specification of the shuttle than them. oh right, conspiracy theories. like they'd say they had real time data feeds if they didn't want to acknowledge the idea.
Piccolo Posted February 2, 2003 Posted February 2, 2003 Well now we know it was a problem with the wing before takeoff. I wonder if the families are going to be taken care off by NASA.
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