Ian's Messy Desk
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. -A.A. Milne
Saturday, February 01, 2003Ya gotta know there are those that are keen to profit from tragedy.
Columbia collectibles soar on eBay. Within hours of the Columbia tragedy, hundreds of items featuring the space shuttle are listed for sale as prices climb. By Scott Ard, Staff Writer, CNET News.com. [CNET News.com]
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THERE'S STREAMING VIDEO of the Shuttle break-up, a roundup of what's known now, and lots of links to other information, here. [InstaPundit]
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Space shuttle Columbia breaks up in flames over Texas, killing all 7 aboard [CBC.CA]
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Check out this NEXRAD loop showing the debris field and -- I think -- heavier debris falling at the beginning. I can't seem to save this animated loop. If anyone can, please do. I assume they're saving it, but you never know.
Via phone, my mother just reported that William Burrows (on NBC) called Congress an "unindicted co-conspirator" for its bad policy and budgetary neglect. That's about right. Meanwhile Defense Tech asks what happens to the Space Station crew. And Virginia Postrel has local reports, and a link to local TV's coverage on streaming video, which she says is quite good. [InstaPundit]
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SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA is out of communication and lost from radar. It should have landed three minutes ago. At this point, it can only be presumed to have been lost on reentry. CNN has photos of it above Dallas, with no obvious problems.
Is there a connection with the presence of an Israeli astronaut? Probably not, but who knows?
UPDATE: Just saw CNN play the video from Dallas -- I was going earlier on something they had said that I guess I misunderstood -- and it looks as if it shows the Shuttle breaking up. A single trail breaks up into multiple vapor trails as it moves. They're gone. May they rest in peace.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's the CNN.com report. People have phoned CNN to report a "loud impact."
Here's Spaceflight Now's real-time update page. At the moment it notes rather optimistically that search and rescue forces are being deployed.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Now, more realistically, NASA is asking people to stay away from any debris that they find, as they may be hazardous.
"At least they got to go into space," observes my daughter. Well, yeah. It still sucks, though.
MORE: Why it's probably not terrorism: (1) if you planted a bomb, you'd want it to go off on takeoff -- that's when everyone is watching, and there's less time for stuff to go wrong, since you'd have to wonder whether a bomb would work after spending an extended time in space; (2) it's basically impossible to shoot down a reentering space shuttle because of its speed and altitude; (3) there are so many things that can go wrong with shuttles, especially Columbia, which is the oldest, without invoking terrorism. I suppose it's conceivable that a saboteur did some sort of subtle structural damage calculated to cause this sort of a failure while remaining unnoticed during ground checks, but that strikes me as unlikely for a variety of reasons.
From the video it looks like structural failure, followed by an explosion as the spacecraft disintegrated. That's unlikely to be the result of sabotage. Most likely it was failure in a wing spar or some other component, probably brought on by age and fatigue, though possibly caused by tile zippering and burn-through, or damage on launch. We'll see. No point getting ahead of things here, but plenty of reason to think it's not terrorism.
Prediction: This won't traumatize people the way Challenger did because (1) it's not the first time; and (2) we're at war now, and people's calculations of such things -- especially post-WTC -- are different. I hope, however, that we'll look at moving beyond the elderly and unreliable Shuttle now.
ANOTHER UPDATE: A woman from Huntington, Texas is reporting lots of debris and a "burning rubber" smell, after hearing a rumbling sound at about 9:15. Debris is reported, via police scanners, in Jasper and Moffett counties, too. [InstaPundit]
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Space shuttle Columbia is lost!. I'm watching the news right now and it is showing pictures of multiple pieces of debris coming into the atmosphere where the Space shuttle Columbia should be. They lost contact with the shuttle more than 20 minutes ago. Pray for the six Americans and one Israeli onboard and their families. Update: It was lost over Dallas and they're warning people not to touch any debris they find. NASA is not yet saying the shuttle was destroyed, but it's pretty clear something horrible went wrong. [Bettnet.com - Musings From Domenico Bettinelli Jr.]
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Margaret Millar. "Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses." [Quotes of the Day]
9:01:05 AM # Speak Up [] - See Also: Quotations
introspection: Dictionary.com Word of the Day. introspection [Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
9:00:10 AM # Speak Up [] - See Also: WOTD
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