Space Shuttle Columbia blows up over Central Texas [Archive]

Falcon4ever

February 1st, 2003, 18:37

Originally posted by AlphaWolf
Some people are such fuckheads. I recorded this a few minutes ago from CBS:

Hmm I don't think it's funny to make fun of peoples dead. Too bad some radio station use them to attract audiance.

I just heard a few min ago what happend and saw some pictures on TV (CNN)

:(

DuDe

February 1st, 2003, 19:14

Talk about a motherfucking coincidence, it just had to happen when the first Israeli astronaut was on board... God damnit...

CpU MasteR

February 1st, 2003, 19:17

This is Sad Indeed, I just read this a few minutes ago & it is all over TV. :(

We wait for a word from the administrators of NASA.

Allnatural

February 1st, 2003, 19:55

Truly sad. :(

Plisco

February 1st, 2003, 20:25

:( Just heard on sky news.

Eagle

February 2nd, 2003, 03:03

Yup, my mom heard and felt it, she is 20 miles away, they thought california had finally fallen into the ocean. The earth shook like a small eathquake.

cooliscoo

February 2nd, 2003, 03:08

Originally posted by DuDe
Talk about a motherfucking coincidence, it just had to happen when the first Israeli astronaut was on board... God damnit...

Why the hell do you have to be so selfish? People are people, no matter what race. My prayers go out to each one of them and their families.

Flash

February 2nd, 2003, 03:09

:(

Why that engineers was so dumb... :angry: Why they launched that old piece of scrap when its place in the museum ? How many launches was delayed due various malfunctions ?

Everything was fine then fire ? Microscopic cracks in fuel pipes... it was TOO old
And they knew it.
Result - 7 deaths...

AlphaWolf

February 2nd, 2003, 04:46

Quite honestly the age of the spacecraft has little to no influence there. If you maintain something well enough, it will last forever. NASA maintains their equipment pretty well.

Eagle

February 2nd, 2003, 05:17

Originally posted by cooliscoo
Why the hell do you have to be so selfish? People are people, no matter what race. My prayers go out to each one of them and their families.

I fully agree.

Eagle

February 2nd, 2003, 05:22

Originally posted by Flash
:(

Why that engineers was so dumb... :angry: Why they launched that old piece of scrap when its place in the museum ? How many launches was delayed due various malfunctions ?

Everything was fine then fire ? Microscopic cracks in fuel pipes... it was TOO old
And they knew it.
Result - 7 deaths...

Obviously you have no idea what your talking about, If NASA had felt it was unsafe, they wouldn't have let it go. This was a problem they couldnt have forseen.

mesman00

February 2nd, 2003, 05:40

any way you look it at, its another catastrophe for the bush administration. my prayers go ou to all of the astronauts families.

also, did anyone see the video of the piece of debree falling off of the shuttle during lift off? anyone know anything more about this?

Macca

February 2nd, 2003, 06:04

Something fell off during takeoff but nasa thought and thought about it till they came to the conclusion that it wasn’t a problem (also they didn’t have the right equipment to do a space walk and investigate further). its unknown if this was a coincident or if they are related

Slougi

February 2nd, 2003, 09:07

Some foam insulation fell of during take-off. Personally I think it is unrelated, the heatshield and the shuttle in general should be able to handle that with zero problems.
IMO, in the long run this was inevitable. The technology is 25 years old, and even the shuttles themselves for the most part. Maybe NASA will be able to secure extra funding now, and design a space shuttle replacement. Something along the lines of the Russian Buran shuttle (http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/rsa/buran.html) which was superior in just about every way.
A very sad happening indeed :( Condolences to all people affected by this.

Macca

February 2nd, 2003, 10:51

i doubt that they will ever find out exactly what went wrong but as a rep from NASA said, the foam came off and hit the wing, dislodging a few iles and stuff, it was later this wing where the first problems was detected. but as i said i dunno if they will ever figure this out

2fast4u

February 2nd, 2003, 11:31

Originally posted by cooliscoo
Why the hell do you have to be so selfish? People are people, no matter what race. My prayers go out to each one of them and their families.

agreed. this is tragedy for the families of those people who had to die and it doesnt matter where they are from.

pj64er

February 2nd, 2003, 14:31

Originally posted by cooliscoo
Why the hell do you have to be so selfish? People are people, no matter what race. My prayers go out to each one of them and their families.

i think you misinterpreted him. he didnt say anything that even hints that Israeli is more important. You should read what he said again...:plain:

cooliscoo

February 2nd, 2003, 16:14

Originally posted by pj64er
i think you misinterpreted him. he didnt say anything that even hints that Israeli is more important. You should read what he said again...:plain:

Well, at the same time DuDe could have offered sentiments instead of complaining that it was especially bad due to their being an Isreali onboard. Excuse me if you don't find that even the slightest bit self-centered.

AlphaWolf

February 2nd, 2003, 16:37

One of the nasa engineers on the news said that they probably wont be building another shuttle; they would probably move to next generation technology instead.

The newest shuttle, Endeavor, is 10 years old.

vampireuk

February 2nd, 2003, 16:44

Originally posted by cooliscoo
Well, at the same time DuDe could have offered sentiments instead of complaining that it was especially bad due to their being an Isreali onboard. Excuse me if you don't find that even the slightest bit self-centered.

dude stop fucking nit picking these statements, you know full fucking well he was not been selfish:getlost:

Eagle

February 2nd, 2003, 17:21

Unless I'm mistaken the Discovery is scheduled to go up next and its almost as old as the Columbia was. I bet they will be a lot more carefull if they dont cancel that launch all together.

cooliscoo

February 2nd, 2003, 17:45

Originally posted by vampireuk
dude stop fucking nit picking these statements, you know full fucking well he was not been selfish:getlost:

...:getlost:

Flash

February 2nd, 2003, 18:35

Originally posted by Eagle
Obviously you have no idea what your talking about, If NASA had felt it was unsafe, they wouldn't have let it go. This was a problem they couldnt have forseen.

It was not launch engineers.

http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,887236,00.html
And shuttle design not perfect. There was many much better projects around the world, but all was trashed due the lack of funding or some reasons far from technical aspects.

Flash

February 2nd, 2003, 18:38

Originally posted by AlphaWolf
One of the nasa engineers on the news said that they probably wont be building another shuttle; they would probably move to next generation technology instead.

If they do that it will be wise move.

AlphaWolf

February 2nd, 2003, 20:46

Originally posted by Flash

http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,887236,00.html
And shuttle design not perfect. There was many much better projects around the world, but all was trashed due the lack of funding or some reasons far from technical aspects.

The shuttle design was perfection for its time. The lack of funding was not in any way related to the cause of their deaths. The shuttle was obsolete, yes, but obsolescence and safety do not necessarily go hand in hand.

The job is simply hazardous. No matter what technology you use, hurling through the atmosphere at 5 miles per second (thats about 29,000 kilometers per hour), isn't safe no matter how you look at it.

Lets suppose they actualy did use a next generation orbiter anyways. If they maintained it poorly, then the same type of disaster would happen, even if its relatively new.

Eagle

February 3rd, 2003, 00:00

Well there is one design flaw that is there and will always be there and it is that the shuttles and most likely every shuttle to come have been built by the lowest bidder. :getlost:

Eagle

February 3rd, 2003, 00:05

I think we should forget the orbiter and design a new Lunar Lander. Its like we made it to the moon and said, oh that old news now, we arent going back. We should continue our exploration of the moon, maybe even colonization eventually.

AlphaWolf

February 4th, 2003, 03:36

re: israelian

I hate to sound racist or anything, but I can't help but wonder what the real reason for putting the israelian guy on that mission was. His position was "Payload Specialist". When you think about it, what the hell is a payload specialist supposed to be? I mean it just sounds like a glorified title, like calling a garbage man a "Waste Disposal Engineer" just to make him and everybody else feel better about himself. Was it just diplomatic reasons or something? Like maybe israel said if we put one of their men in space before a pallistinian ever gets in space, they give us oil preference over the UK or something (hypotheticaly speaking of course)? I mean c'mon.

Macca

February 4th, 2003, 03:44

it was just to further cement israels relations with the US and others, its not like there wasnt a US bloke capable of doing his job

AlphaWolf

February 4th, 2003, 03:47

If they would have actualy given him an important job, at least it wouldn't look that way. :ermm:

DuDe

February 7th, 2003, 13:58

Originally posted by cooliscoo
Why the hell do you have to be so selfish? People are people, no matter what race. My prayers go out to each one of them and their families.

It has absolutely nothing to do with selfishness. Ilan Ramon was a national hero, and seeing him beeing blown the fuck up into pieces definitely made me feel like shit. Now, if you see that as a some kind of a selfish way of thinking, well, cry me a river.

Eagle

February 7th, 2003, 14:30

Originally posted by DuDe
It has absolutely nothing to do with selfishness. Ilan Ramon was a national hero, and seeing him beeing blown the fuck up into pieces definitely made me feel like shit. Now, if you see that as a some kind of a selfish way of thinking, well, cry me a river.

I think the way you worded it made it sound like something other than what you intended.

Trotterwatch

February 7th, 2003, 14:33

Ilan Ramon seemed like a great man, he along with all the others did everyone proud. I particularly like some of the things he said when orbiting the planet about how it all seemed so peaceful.

Respect to all nations affected by this tragedy, US, Israel and India as well as to all their families and friends. At least they died on the way down, after they had fufilled their dreams (which is at least a very small consolation).

DuDe

February 7th, 2003, 14:55

Originally posted by Eagle
I think the way you worded it made it sound like something other than what you intended.
Probably, but you must remember that no matter how good my English is, I may still have the occassional fuck up here and there, since I wasn't born into this language. Anyway, in no way have I meant that the other astronauts on the shuttle are anyhow less important. It's just that the Israeli one is much closer to me.

DuDe

February 7th, 2003, 14:56

Originally posted by Trotterwatch

Respect to all nations affected by this tragedy, US, Israel and India as well as to all their families and friends. At least they died on the way down, after they had fufilled their dreams (which is at least a very small consolation).
I don't think that I could've ever phrased it better myself.

DuDe

February 7th, 2003, 14:59

Originally posted by AlphaWolf
If they would have actualy given him an important job, at least it wouldn't look that way. :ermm:
Well, "important" is a relative definition. Ramon did a couple of environmental experiments that may have a large impact on the future life in the Middle-East.

DuDe

February 7th, 2003, 15:00