Shuttle Columbia 'lost'
 

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/0....ap/index.html

Rumour control has it that it burned up on re-entry. As yet I am unable to find anything to substantiate this but if true I assume more information will be forthcoming. :(

Rumor 'control'? How can it be control if a rumor that it burned up is getting out?? :rolleyes:

i bet it was saddam

this could be bad... :(

saddam bin laden?

There's the picture with the parts burning in the sky. This is bad, unless the picture is about Mir or something

"my entire house was shaking, and it's not a small house."
:rolleyes:

and already they're mentioned terrorism

BBC and Fox links to go with the CNN one. Apparently there are claims of debris seen falling.

For those not reading the links NASA lost all radio contact with the shuttle shortly before landing. There has been no sign of the shuttle since so NASA has declared an emergency and cleared all reporters from Cape Canaveral. Columbia was carrying the world's first Israeli astronaut and if there's any link shown between that and what increasingly looks to be a lost shuttle then the **** is gonna hit the fan so hard it'll make Desert Storm look like a walk in the park.

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Current+Affairs

auto updating linkage for anyone who cares

this is going to be very bad.

US/israel suspecting palestine not to mention iraq is heading for a whole heap of ****

Before everyone gets too hung up on terrorism...

but bush only needs an excuse to push the button...

The shuttle was 40 miles above Texas when contact was lost, the chances of it being due to terrorist activity = 0.

First israeli in space, and the shuttle breaks up over palestine, Texas.

Though CNN said that it is 'highly unlikely' to be a terrorist attack.

bill hillybilly was on the line ya'll

Aye, the newsreporter was liek 'wtf'

ffs
 

Everything that has happened after september 11th has been instantly pointed at terrorism - for god's sake, these things happen! (Anyone to point out that this exact sort of event hasn't happened in the history of manned space flight gets a punch in the face) These people know the risks when they go in for these sort of things.

So there was an Israeli on board... coincidence, of course. It was 40 miles up when it appeared to break apart (NOT explode).
But naturally there'll be finger pointing... a high-up israeli airforce officer that ran highly successful missions against iraq in the gulf war gets blown up in a space shuttle crash. Naturally finger pointing will occur. I just hope Bush and Blair don't try to use this to start a war...

CNN has updated. The shuttle is officially gone.
Requisat im pace :(

it's always amusing to watch the guy try and act all in cool in the face of this great danger

also note he keeps saying "they're talking to me, they're talking too loud in my ear"

yes, with one of his ufos :/

It's all New Mexico's fault. It lost contact shortly after passing over us.

Note to CIA officers reading this: I am not breifed in my state's use of black operations. Don't come and get me in the night. I am useless.

It's not gone, just scattered all over Texas...

Rest in pieces, oh well it gives the CNN some breaking news again and something to fill their program for another week.

We just lost a 2 billion dollar piece of machinery. I think it's going to be about 2 weeks until we rid oursleves of this.

bit ironic that on cnn its in the "breaking news" section

:( :( :( :( :( :(

not really. It just happened. like an hour ago. That's pretty breaking.

oh I get it.

that's awful. Shut up.

oh that's so awful. I'm gonna reuse that now.

You mean 'requiescat in pace' :(

Yes.

It's a pretty sad event, and a very unfortunate setback in space research.

Definitely sad but not necessarily a setback, it depends on the attitude they take. NASA have a well deserved reputation for not giving up so hopefully their attitude will be 'we will not let this stop us'.

I just saw footage of when the shuttle passed over White Sands (about a hour south of me). It was fine at that point. When the shuttle entered Texas, it began to break up and disintegrate.

I'm thinking a tile of the heat shield was broken and no one noticed. Even one makes a difference.

Sad news indeed :( We were only at KSC in November and watched the previous shuttle launch for the ISS... :(

haha

NPR (National Public Radio) says that space radar showed the shuttle upside down and spinning as it entered the atmosphere. This has not been verified.

they lost contact with the shuttle at 20,000 feet. At that altitude terrorist are ruled out. although a big concern now is terrorist seeing this as a sign from god that he is on their side. well guess that new space shuttle program is gonna get rushed now.

We still have 5 more shuttles..

And it was at 200,000 feet. 20,000 is below most airliner traffic.

Are you joking?????????

NASA is on the verge of bankruptcy, with the balloning cost of the ISS. I think public support is the only thing keeping it going. Now this......

I reckon "somebody" forgot to switch off the FlameBall machine.

wreckage found, rumour has it human remains have been also

You can bet this will at least mean no more space launches until they've analized this for some months. :( I'm a big fan of NASA, but I fear this could be very bad for them...

nasa's attitude will be that, but it'll be all the excuse the US government needs to shut down the space programme for good....

CNN keeps saying that they might have found some of the human remains.

They have to. There are 3 people on the ISS...they may be able to get home on one of the russian escape pods, but I don't think anyone's made any decisions on if they want to chance it.

White House press conference within the next 30 minutes. BBC24 feed here.

I fear that this incident could set space travel back by decades.

Agreed, I won't be surprise if there are only a handfull of missions from now on.

Or maybe they might finally revamp the space program, though I strong doubt that considering the current administraion.

As the more perceptive among you have noted, while this is a terrible tragedy, its greater significance, in the longer term, is the detrimental impact it is likely to have on future manned spaceflight. The shuttle is an ageing, almost obsolete technology; there have been 111 flights, and the odds of disaster on each one runs at approximately one in a hundred.

It is fortuitous that there are three people aboard the ISS at this present moment. If they weren't there, forcing NASA to keep launching shuttle missions to supply them, there would be another Challenge-style prolonged grounding, and several years would pass before the space program started up again. It might even not do so - following a disaster like this, the already massively overdue, white elephant ISS might never be completed, without a human reason to keep up supply missions. The three people currently in space may well prove the link to a glorious future we are on a knife-edge of either attating or never achieving. By forcing NASA to continue sending up missions, to keep their people in orbit alive, they will be forced to take a constructive attitude of "getting over" Columbia, rather than, like following Challenger, retreating into safety-obsessed introversion and getting nothing else done until 1989.

The worst thing NASA can possibly do right now is to hack it's schedule to pieces and spend a year working out what went wrong and how it can prevent it ever happening again. By all means they should do that, but alongside continuing use of the other three vehicles (I note someone said five - there are only three, but this is more than enough, considering the infrequency of launches). I'm the biggest space-phile you're ever likely to meet, so am somewhat biased, but what NASA has to do over the next year is continue its program as normal using the other three shuttles, with the Columbia investigation a sideline.

This is no understatement: It is vital for the future of humanity that this disaster does not slow or scupper spatial development. These things happen. It has been almost a hundred shuttle flights since Challenger; we were due for a disaster round about now anyway. Now it's happened. Let's pray it doesn't again for at least another seventeen years. Meanwhile, let's get on with it and finish the ISS.

I dread hearing the political reaction to this. Beyond the immediate remorse, they will, I am almost certain, though I pray otherwise, advocate a lengthy grounding of the shuttle fleet lasting until the investigation is completed and measures taken so that it can never happen again. Future supply missions to the ISS will likelybe made by unmanned rocket. This is the worst possible news; news of such magnitude, for the future of the whole species, that no one else will even be able to appreciate it. It's too big, too far away for most people to even care. There's just a few space obsessives, like me, who will rant and rave like I am doing here, voices lost in the surrounding chorus of uncaringness.

Anyway. I think this deserves a beer.

This is a bad day for NASA. NASA is gonna have its hands full fighting the trolls who are trying to kill the space programs. :-(

Much as I dislike Bush this is one thing he deals with very well. His speach after the September 11th attack on the WTC was just right, as was his response to this. An acknowledgement of grief, a message for the families of those involved, and a statement that the US will still move forward.

You'll not hear me say this often but well done Mr. Bush.

The statistics indicated it was likely to happen again. A great pity for the families of the astronauts. In fairness anyone who thinks this means that space travel should be stopped belongs in a home with a nurse to wipe the drool off his chin. Thousands of people are killed every year on the roads in america, maybe we should ban driving!