Breaking News - Shuttle Lost

[S-Gray]

Hmm.. i thought it was 3 States? Or so i heard on the News...

heh i wouldnt be suprised if the Government found the addresses of the guys on Ebay and send out the MiB fellas.

 

[prime1]

Originally posted by PR.
They already are on ebay, about 30mins after it happened

Debris has been thrown across two states.

The BBC reckon that the remaning ISS crew will use the old Russian escape pods to get home and that will be it. Unless Russia use its old rockets to ship people up there. Us euros can't get empty rockets in the air without the blowing up so were not much use :/

what happened to the other shuttles?

 

[Ukle]

Originally posted by prime1


what happened to the other shuttles?

They are all grounded... although I doubt very much they will be grounded for long as they cant abanden the ISS as too much money is involved. The shuttles are the only feasable way of getting men and materials up to the ISS in the quantities needed for it to be anything but an expensive construction site. I wouldn't be supprised if they put it largely down to a 'shit happens' as space is dangerous and the worlds luck in space has held out for 17/18 years, but a fatality was bound to happen sooner or later, and all the planning in the world cant cope with every eventuallity only limit them.

 

[Embattle]

After Challenger blew up they grounded the shuttles for 3 years so it might be grounded again leaving the ISS in serious doubt and problems....at least until NASA gets some idea what happen.

 

[Ukle]

Originally posted by Embattle
After Challenger blew up they grounded the shuttles for 3 years so it might be grounded again leaving the ISS in serious doubt and problems....at least until NASA gets some idea what happen.

Yes but the situation is very different now for many reasons -

After the Challanger disaster they spent those 3 years following rebuilding the shuttle design removing any potential risk, why? As they didn't want another disaster and the original design was 'rushed' in order to meet budget and time lines, and so many safety issues were overlooked.

The ISS exists and is I believe the most expensive space program apart from apollo and the building of the shuttles, they are not just going to 'right off' many billions of dollars worth of equipment and it will be written off if a shuttle doesn't go back up there and reboost its altitude as it will fall to earth as it has no way of boosting itself yet as its boost stage has not been added and it relies on the shuttles to move it.

America needs uplifting achievements at the current time with the 'war on terrorism' and a potentially prolonged gulf war/occupation. So they will be trying to get them flying as fast as they can.

If anything good comes out of this accident is that it maybe is a good thing for space exploration as it might mean the Americans rethink about building a new shuttle rather than retrofitting these ageing and now dwindling in number machines.

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Embattle
-->might<-- be grounded........-->at least until NASA gets some idea what happen<--

Its not very different at all, this is still another Shuttle lost and in another way....on re-entry so it will be every bit as important to find the reason why it blew up, and even harder to find out why it did due to the fact that parts would of been badly damaged from burning as it fell through the atmosphere.

America may need uplifting achievements but what its doesn't need is more people blown up on re-entry and the fact remains that NASA unlikely to launch any more until they have some sort of clue what happened.

 

[Embattle]

BTW good article http://www.forbes.com/home/2003/02/01/cx_ah_0201space.html

Bad Form - http://www.msfn.org/comments.php?catid=1&id=746

Like Vermin - http://rss.com.com/2100-1017-983033.html

 

[prime1]

I dont reckon they will ground the fleet for long this time round, doing it last time was incredibly unpopular, also that shuttle had 115 million miles on the clock as the oldest and furthest travelled, so many flights happen that its unlikely to be a general fault in all shuttles, they will play up the law of averages and continue the program.

 

[Embattle]

No one doubts they will continue the program, they have no real other replacement due for some 10 years yet.

 

[RandomIce]

First of all i have to say i feel for the families of those involved. Secondly while its true challenger stoped shuttles missions from when it happened in 1986 untill 1988 it will depend entirly one what they find to be wrong if anything. If its a serious flaw they might have to spend a lot of time redevloping the shuttles or if its a small problem or an off chance they might have to spend a little bit of time. Whatever the problem with the shuttle nasa will work to overcome it, as the ISS is a major investment and i dont think they will just abandon it.

 

[Munkey-]

Holy shit........full body bags....burnt helmets.....they actually wore those.

 

[exxxie]

Think I read/heard that the US spends 2-3% of its GDP on the space program? I can see NASA getting a lot more money from the Bush government once things have settled down.

Terrible accident, but wouldnt all that money be best spent somewhere else for now?

 

[PR.]

Originally posted by exxxie
Terrible accident, but wouldnt all that money be best spent somewhere else for now?

Nope.

 

[Durzel]

Originally posted by adams901
CNN just showed the mission control screen and played the communication between mission control and Columbia.

You hear Columbia respond to mission control with something about tyre pressure indications not corresponding , Columbia then they say "roger", you then hear them break up mid sentence, everything goes quiet for about 5 seconds then all you hear is static..

Very Sad

Indeed.

I found that to be one of the most disturbing bits of footage surrounding the whole event.

Though, I guess, maybe it was a good thing that they didn't know what hit them. We can only hope that their living compartment was instantly depressurised, leading to them all ending up being unconscious.

 

[Embattle]

Holst - The Planets is a wonderful CD to listen to in such times.

 

[Daffeh]

Originally posted by exxxie
Terrible accident, but wouldnt all that money be best spent somewhere else for now?

yeah, more money to use to bomb Iraq

 

[xane]

I see CNN is maintaining its accuracy on this tragedy

 

[~YuckFou~]

light, sound, who cares we are yanks.

 

[~YuckFou~]

DISASTER 'A SIGN FROM GOD'
Controversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza has claimed the space shuttle disaster showed the mission was a "Trinity of Evil" punished with death by Allah.

Mr Hamza made the claim because the Columbia carried Americans, an Israeli Jew and an Indian-born Hindu - and it blew up over an area called Palestine.

He said British Muslims would take the shuttle disaster as a "sign from God".

(Teletext news)





I really don't understand why we let this cunt live in our country. He is blatently against us and any other non Muslims, and yet we let him remain.

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by xane
I see CNN is maintaining its accuracy on this tragedy

mach 16 wasn't it?

 

[~YuckFou~]

12,500mph, yup roughly mach 16. Unless you are American in which case is Warp Speed 16.

 

[leggy]

The speed of sound is actually less than mach1 at those altitudes though.

It's about 344 m/s at STP but will be less at very high altitudes.

</pedantic>

 

[~YuckFou~]

I was thinking that, but wasn't sure exactly how much difference the altitude makes. At sea level its +/- 750mph iirc.

 

[Lester]

Actually at ground level it's the speed at which Tdc replies to posts.

 

[*Kornholio*]

Originally posted by leggy
The speed of sound is actually less than mach1 at those altitudes though.

It's about 344 m/s at STP but will be less at very high altitudes.

</pedantic>

Sound travels through air, right ? So, the speed of sound in space = 0 ??

 

[kanonfodda]

High altitude means inside the atmosphere, hence in air, albeit very thin air

 

[prime1]

I suspect they let that fucked up ugly bastard stay in this country because its easier to keep an eye on him here, than it is there, although we should deffinitely cut off any and all aid/support given to him.


The space program should never be stopped either, if anything it should only ever be pushed further forward. Its one of the only things that gets real genuine international collaboration (the ISS is a joint project by 16 nations - its the main thing that really brings Russia and America together for example).

Also the zero-g environment, has done, and will allow huge advances in technology, allowing research that is almost impossible to do on Earth - (wasnt the humble ballpoint pen developed so that astronaughts could write in space? - although admittedly a pencil would do!)

If the space program continues the ultimate pregression is offworld colonies, and even if these colnies aren't populated, offworld manufacturing, nuclear processing etc would take the risk and pollution away from the earth, surely a good thing.

 

[leggy]

Originally posted by prime1
I suspect they let that fucked up ugly bastard stay in this country because its easier to keep an eye on him here, than it is there, although we should deffinitely cut off any and all aid/support given to him.

Wrong thread prime?

Or have i missed the point?

 

[granny]

Maybe he was referring to the bloke in that CNN picture?

 

[prime1]

abu hamzar, people were talkin about him about 5 posts before.