The analysts I have heard have not yet said whether there is any chance of the crew surviving. Does anyone know if the crew area is in a separate capsule that could stay intact on a break-up?
Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families.
[quote] PS I think this means NASA is finished <hr></blockquote>
it is awful and very sad, but NASA finished?? Space flight and space exploration is inherently very dangerous...challenger was what 17 years ago? (seems much sooner, but some things stay fresh in your mind)...the number of people lost by NASA is actually quite low for how dangerous the job is....of course any people lost is too many....but many more people have died trying to climb mount everest than have died flying through space and landing on the moon....g
again, our thoughts are on the families, i wish them the strenght to withstand this tragedy....it would be very hard on me if a loved one was on board....
This was no terrorist attack. There's no grounds for it. 200,000 feet altitude is much too high for a surface to air missle, and there is no way an astronaut...Israeli or otherwise would ever do such a thing. One of the astronauts on board is from my hometown in Wisconsin, so we are feeling the shock here pretty bad. This could be any number of things. Several tiles could have shaken loose from the bottom of the shuttle's heat shield and that could have cause the intense heat of reentry to break through the hull and ignite existing fuel. There could have been any number of possibilities. But one thing is for sure...the shuttle program is grounded for at least a year or two if not for good. The fleet is just too old and in too much disrepair to keep flying...it is unfortunate that it takes a disaster like this to make people realize it. I believe we will see an entirely new shuttle or a new fleet before we see another shuttle launch. This is unfornutate because I used to watch them take-off and land and it was always such a beautiful sight. This is a sad day without a doubt...
There have been accidents before. There will be accidents again. As a comparison, think how many lives have been lost in civil aviation over the years. There are still accidents these days, but aviation - on a percentage basis - is safer than it has ever been (safer than driving your car).
We honour the dead. We learn from mistakes. We carry on.
The analysts I have heard have not yet said whether there is any chance of the crew surviving. Does anyone know if the crew area is in a separate capsule that could stay intact on a break-up?
Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Unfortunately, the crew is not in a separate capsule to the best of my knowledge. There really isn't any way to survive what happened.
This is really shocking and I'm very saddened. Although there will always be conspiracy theories about terrorism because of the Isreali astronaut on board... I think this is just a result of a very aging fleet. The shuttles are 20+ years old. Watching the cnn.com scroll thingy at the bottom of the screen said something about debris hitting the shuttle during launch, and some sort of insulating foam falling off the shuttle's exterior. I think after this the rest of the fleet will be grounded or severely overhauled, and massive shifts in funding will be made towards the new shuttles being developed.
And, I don't think this is the end of NASA. It bounced back after Challenger, it will bounce back after this. I'm sorry, but you have to take risks in the name of science and exploration in space.
Sorry for the lengthy post... NASA/space/astronomy is just a very sensitive topic for me.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who were lost today.
they were interviewing one of the astronauts who was saying that this was the heaviest lander ever, because they'd be carrying so much stuff back with them.
i wonder if they'll ever figure out what happened. do space shuttles have flight recorders?
edit: i wonder if this will lead to some way of keeping that high speed debris out of the way while launching. that wouldn't surprise me if losing that insulation while launcing didn't cause problems until landing.
One of few times that you get chills down your spine watching the news. Ground control to nobody, it appears. Quite heavy stuff, all this. Poor bastards. <img src="embarrassed.gif" border="0">
they still haven't changed the <a href="http://www.apple.com/powermac/"; target="_blank">powermac</a> site nor random images of 20" lcd at Apple...does anybody know how to get in touch with apple?? even if they can't change the image, perhaps a short memorial? g
<strong>they still haven't changed the <a href="http://www.apple.com/powermac/"; target="_blank">powermac</a> site nor random images of 20" lcd at Apple...does anybody know how to get in touch with apple?? even if they can't change the image, perhaps a short memorial? g</strong><hr></blockquote>
they changed them and removed them.... ichecked about a a half hour ago and they just had one remaining and now i cant find it. takes time
edit: ah... that one on the main powermac page is apparently still there.. it wasnt showing up for me anymore for a while
I completely agree that Nasa's "faster, cheaper, better" policy is probably going to come to an end. HOPEFULLY if any good can come from this, our government will start funding NASA to the levels it needs.
I wonder if they will relaunch the shuttle replacement program, venture star or whatever it was called.
It truly is so sad... I can only imagine what the families of the crew are going through right now.
Comments
NASA lost contact at 9 AM EST and the video shows multiple objects falling down towards Earth.
NASA is telling everyone in Texas not to touch any debris they may find. Does not look good.
[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: murbot ]</p>
The analysts I have heard have not yet said whether there is any chance of the crew surviving. Does anyone know if the crew area is in a separate capsule that could stay intact on a break-up?
Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families.
thankfully apple has changed their front page image to the powerbooks...
Hopefully this is not connected to terrorism in any way. (With the israeli being onboard.)
I wonder how Bush will handle this?
It's 2:35 in the AM here, and I just checked slashdot. "I bet there'll be another disaster" I thought before the page loaded.
It's not shaping up to be a great millenium
Barto
PS I think this means NASA is finished
[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: Barto ]</p>
it is awful and very sad, but NASA finished?? Space flight and space exploration is inherently very dangerous...challenger was what 17 years ago? (seems much sooner, but some things stay fresh in your mind)...the number of people lost by NASA is actually quite low for how dangerous the job is....of course any people lost is too many....but many more people have died trying to climb mount everest than have died flying through space and landing on the moon....g
again, our thoughts are on the families, i wish them the strenght to withstand this tragedy....it would be very hard on me if a loved one was on board....
terrible.
<strong>PS I think this means NASA is finished
[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: Barto ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
I disagree.
There have been accidents before. There will be accidents again. As a comparison, think how many lives have been lost in civil aviation over the years. There are still accidents these days, but aviation - on a percentage basis - is safer than it has ever been (safer than driving your car).
We honour the dead. We learn from mistakes. We carry on.
[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: Chinney ]</p>
<strong>I am watching now.
The analysts I have heard have not yet said whether there is any chance of the crew surviving. Does anyone know if the crew area is in a separate capsule that could stay intact on a break-up?
Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Unfortunately, the crew is not in a separate capsule to the best of my knowledge. There really isn't any way to survive what happened.
This is really shocking and I'm very saddened. Although there will always be conspiracy theories about terrorism because of the Isreali astronaut on board... I think this is just a result of a very aging fleet. The shuttles are 20+ years old. Watching the cnn.com scroll thingy at the bottom of the screen said something about debris hitting the shuttle during launch, and some sort of insulating foam falling off the shuttle's exterior. I think after this the rest of the fleet will be grounded or severely overhauled, and massive shifts in funding will be made towards the new shuttles being developed.
And, I don't think this is the end of NASA. It bounced back after Challenger, it will bounce back after this. I'm sorry, but you have to take risks in the name of science and exploration in space.
Sorry for the lengthy post... NASA/space/astronomy is just a very sensitive topic for me.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who were lost today.
i wonder if they'll ever figure out what happened. do space shuttles have flight recorders?
edit: i wonder if this will lead to some way of keeping that high speed debris out of the way while launching. that wouldn't surprise me if losing that insulation while launcing didn't cause problems until landing.
[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: alcimedes ]</p>
My thoughts and prayers to their family memebers.
My prayers for the families of the astronauts.
[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: SDW2001 ]</p>
edit...gone now
[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: thegelding ]</p>
<strong>they still haven't changed the <a href="http://www.apple.com/powermac/"; target="_blank">powermac</a> site nor random images of 20" lcd at Apple...does anybody know how to get in touch with apple?? even if they can't change the image, perhaps a short memorial? g</strong><hr></blockquote>
they changed them and removed them.... ichecked about a a half hour ago and they just had one remaining and now i cant find it. takes time
edit: ah... that one on the main powermac page is apparently still there.. it wasnt showing up for me anymore for a while
[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: applenut ]</p>
I wonder if they will relaunch the shuttle replacement program, venture star or whatever it was called.
It truly is so sad... I can only imagine what the families of the crew are going through right now.