Space Disaster on NASA Shuttle Columbia (2003)

[bennyp81]

Bart Reed
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 9:26 AM

NASA Loses Touch With Shuttle Columbia
NASA Declares Emergency and Fears the Worst After Losing Communication With Space Shuttle Columbia

The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Feb. 1, 2003 — 7:26 a.m. PDT

NASA declared an emergency and feared the worst after losing communication with space shuttle Columbia as the ship and its seven astronauts soared over Texas several minutes before its expected landing Saturday.

As the minutes wore on, there appeared to be no hope for their survival.

Television stations showed what appeared to be debris falling, and NASA warned Texas residents to beware of any falling objects. NASA also announced that search and rescue teams were being mobilized in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas.

Inside Mission Control, flight controllers hovered in front of their computers, staring at the screens. The wives, husbands and children of the astronauts who had been waiting at the landing strip were gathered together by NASA and taken to secluded place.

"A contingency for the space shuttle has been declared," Mission Control repeated over and over as no word or any data came from Columbia.

In 42 years of U.S. human space flight, there had never been an accident during the descent to Earth or landing. On Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.

On Jan. 16, shortly after Columbia lifted off, a piece of insulating foam on its external fuel tank came off and was believed to have struck the left wing of the shuttle. Leroy Cain, the lead flight director in Mission Control, assured reporters Friday that engineers had concluded that any damage to the wing was considered minor and posed no safety hazard.

Columbia had been aiming for a landing at 9:16 a.m. Saturday.

It was at an altitude of 207,000 feet over north-central Texas at a 9 a.m., traveling at 12,500 mph when Mission Control lost contact and tracking data.

Security had been tight for the 16-day scientific research mission because of the presence of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut.

Ramon, a colonel in Israel's air force and former fighter pilot, became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in an increase in security, not only for Columbia's launch, but also for its planned landing. Space agency officials feared his presence might make the shuttle more of a terrorist target.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said it had no immediate comment.

Columbia's crew had completed 80-plus scientific research experiments during their time in orbit.

Þ--Þ--Þ<br>
Bart Reed
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 9:30 AM

Another version of this breaking story...
NASA Loses Touch With Shuttle Columbia; NASA Declares An Emergency After Losing Communication With Space Shuttle Columbia Ahead Of Landing

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. 2.1.03, 6:49am -
NASA declared an emergency after losing communication with space shuttle Columbia as the ship soared over Texas several minutes before its expected landing time Saturday morning.

The shuttle was carrying the first Israeli astronaut and six Americans, and authorities had feared it would be a terrorist target.

Fifteen minutes after the expected landing time, and with no word from the shuttle, NASA announced that search and rescue teams were being mobilized in Dallas and Fort Worth areas.

Inside Mission Control, flight controller hovered in front of their computers, staring at the screens. The wives, husbands and children of the astronauts who had been waiting at the landing strip were gathered together by NASA and taken to separate place.

Columbia was at an altitude of 200,700 feet over north-central Texas at a 9 a.m., traveling at 12,500 mph when mission control lost contact and tracking data.

NASA, while not saying the shuttle had exploded, broken up or crashed, warned that any debris found in the area should be avoided and could be hazardous.

There were reports of debris seen falling.

In 42 years of human space flight, NASA has never lost a space crew during landing or the ride back to orbit. In 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.

Security had been tight for the 16-day scientific research mission that included the first Israeli astronaut.

Ilan Ramon, a colonel in Israel's air force and former fighter pilot, became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in an increase in security, not only for Columbia's Jan. 16 launch, but also for its landing. Space agency officials feared his presence might make the shuttle more of a terrorist target.

On launch day, a piece of insulating foam on the external fuel tank came off during liftoff and was believed to have struck the left wing of the shuttle.

Leroy Cain, the lead flight director in Mission Control, had assured reporters Friday that engineers had concluded that any damage to the wing was considered minor and posed no safety hazard.

Þ--Þ--Þ<br>
Bart Reed
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 9:39 AM

Fox News: Saturday, February 01, 2003

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA lost communication with the space shuttle Columbia approximately sixteen minutes before its scheduled landing Saturday morning.

At the time, Columbia was streaking over north-central Texas, at an altitude of approximately 200,000 feet, moving at about 12,500 mph. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration declared an emergency.

NASA was mobilizing search and rescue teams in and around the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and warned people to be on the look out for "debris" which was described as possibly being "toxic."

Witnesses reported falling debris, and video showed what seemed to be the shuttle breaking apart.

The shuttle was carrying the first Israeli astronaut and six Americans, and authorities had feared it would be a terrorist target.

Inside Mission Control, flight controller hovered in front of their computers, staring at the screens. The wives, husbands and children of the astronauts who had been waiting at the landing strip were gathered together by NASA and taken to separate place.

NASA, while not saying the shuttle had exploded, broken up or crashed, warned that any debris found in the area should be avoided and could be hazardous.

In 42 years of human space flight, NASA has never lost a space crew during landing or the ride back to orbit. In 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.

Security had been tight for the 16-day scientific research mission that included the first Israeli astronaut.

Ilan Ramon, a colonel in Israel's air force and former fighter pilot, became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in an increase in security, not only for Columbia's Jan. 16 launch, but also for its landing. Space agency officials feared his presence might make the shuttle more of a terrorist target.

On launch day, a piece of insulating foam on the external fuel tank came off during liftoff and was believed to have struck the left wing of the shuttle.

Leroy Cain, the lead flight director in Mission Control, had assured reporters Friday that engineers had concluded that any damage to the wing was considered minor and posed no safety hazard.

The early morning fog burned off as the sun rose, and Mission Control gave the seven astronauts the go-ahead to come home on time. "I guess you've been wondering, but you are 'go' for the deorbit burn," Mission Control radioed at practically the last minute.

Ilan Ramon, a colonel in Israel's air force and former fighter pilot, became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in an increase in security, not only for Columbia's Jan. 16 launch, but also for its landing.

Space agency officials feared his presence might make the shuttle more of a terrorist target.

"We've taken all reasonable measures, and all of our landings so far since 9-11 have gone perfectly," said Lt. Col. Michael Rein, an Air Force spokesman.

Columbia's crew -- Ramon and six Americans -- completed all of their 80-plus experiments in orbit. They studied ant, bee and spider behavior in weightlessness as well as changes in flames and flower scents, and took measurements of atmospheric dust with a pair of Israeli cameras.

All of the scientific objectives were accomplished during the round-the-clock laboratory mission, and some of the work may be continued aboard the international space station, researchers said.

The only problem of note was a pair of malfunctioning dehumidifiers, which temporarily raised temperatures inside the laboratory to the low 80s, 10 degrees higher than desired.

Some of Columbia's crew members didn't want their time in space to end.

"Do we really have to come back?" astronaut David Brown jokingly asked Mission Control before the ride home.

NASA's next shuttle flight, a space station construction mission, is scheduled for March.

The next time Columbia flies will be in November, when it carries into orbit educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who was the backup for Challenger crew member Christa McAuliffe in 1986.

The Associated Press contributed this report.

Þ--Þ--Þ

[bennyp81]

Bart Reed
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 9:42 AM

Crew Profiles: Saturday, February 01, 2003

Commander Rick Husband has just one other spaceflight under his belt and already he's flying as commander. That's a rarity.

"I think a lot of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time, for starters," says Husband, 45, an Air Force colonel from Amarillo, Texas.

The former test pilot was selected as an astronaut in 1994 on his fourth try. He made up his mind as a child that that was what he was going to do with his life.

"It's been pretty much a lifelong dream and just a thrill to be able to get to actually live it out," he says.

Another lifelong passion: singing.

Husband, a baritone, has been singing in church choirs for years. He used to sing in barbershop quartets, back during his school days.

------

Pilot William McCool says one of the most nerve-racking parts of training for this scientific research mission was learning to draw blood -- from others.

Columbia's two pilots are exempted from invasive medical tests in orbit, like blood draws. That means he and his commander have to draw blood from their crewmates.

McCool felt bad practicing on NASA volunteers.

"I didn't want to inflict pain," he recalls. "We weren't really gathering science, so everything that they were going through was for my benefit, and I guess I felt bad a little bit."

The 41-year-old Navy commander, a father of three sons, graduated second in his 1983 class at the Naval Academy. He went on to test pilot school and became an astronaut in 1996. This is his first spaceflight.

McCool grew up in Lubbock, Texas.

------

Payload commander Michael Anderson loves flying, both in aircraft and spacecraft, but he dislikes being launched.

It's the risk factor. "There's always that unknown," he says.

Anderson, 43, the son of an Air Force man, grew up on military bases.

"I was always fascinated by science-fiction shows, shows like 'Star Trek' and 'Lost in +Space+,"' he says. "And going out of your house and looking up and seeing jets fly by, that seemed like another very exciting thing to do. So I knew I wanted to fly airplanes, and I knew I wanted to do something really exciting, and I always had a natural interest in science.

"So it all kind of came together at a very young age, and I thought being an astronaut would be the perfect job."

Anderson was flying for the Air Force when NASA chose him in 1994 as one of only a handful of black astronauts. He traveled to Russia's Mir space station in 1998.

He is now a lieutenant colonel and in charge of Columbia's dozens of science experiments. His home is Spokane, Wash.

------

When Kalpana Chawla emigrated to the United States from India in the 1980s, she wanted to design aircraft. The space program was the furthest thing from her mind.

"That would be too far-fetched," says the 41-year-old engineer. But "one thing led to another," and she was chosen as an astronaut in 1994 after working at NASA's Ames Research Center and Overset Methods Inc. in Northern California.

On her only other spaceflight, in 1996, Chawla made a pair of mistakes that sent a science satellite tumbling out of control. Two other astronauts had to go out on a spacewalk to capture it.

"I stopped thinking about it after trying to figure out what are the lessons learned, and there are so many," she says. "After I had basically sorted that out, I figured it's time to really look at the future and not at the past."

She realizes some may see this flight as her chance to redeem herself.

------

David Brown is a Navy novelty: He's both a pilot and a doctor. He's also probably the only NASA astronaut to have worked as a circus performer.

Brown was a varsity gymnast at the College of William and Mary when he got a phone call one day: Would he like to join the circus? So during the summer of 1976, he was an acrobat, tumbler, stilt walker and 7-foot unicycle rider.

"What I really learned from that, and transfers directly to what I'm doing on this crew, is kind of the team work and the safety and the staying focused, even at the end of a long day when you're tired and you're doing some things that may have some risk to them."

He joined the Navy after his medical internship and went on to fly the A-6E Intruder and F-18. His current rank is captain.

NASA chose him as an astronaut in 1996. This is his first spaceflight; he will help with all the experiments.

Brown, 46, is taking up a flag from Yorktown High School in Arlington, Va., his alma mater, that another graduate took up Mount Everest. "I'm going to get it a little bit higher up, but I won't have to walk as far to get it there."

------

Laurel Clark, a Navy physician who worked undersea, likens the numerous launch delays to a marathon in which the finish line keeps moving out five miles.

"You've got to slow back down and maintain a pace," she says.

The 41-year-old Clark was a diving medical officer aboard submarines and then a naval flight surgeon. She became an astronaut in 1996.

Her family, including her 8-year-old son, worry sometimes about her being an astronaut. But she tells everyone "what an aggressive safety program we have."

"To me, there's a lot of different things that we do during life that could potentially harm us and I choose not to stop doing those things," she notes. "They've all come to accept that it's what I want to do."

She will help with Columbia's science experiments, which should have flown almost two years ago.

Her home is Racine, Wis.

------

Ilan Ramon, a colonel in Israel's air force, is the first Israeli to be launched into space.

"For Israel and for the Jewish community, it's something beyond being in space," he says. "It's a very symbolic mission."

His mother and grandmother survived the Auschwitz death camp, and his father was a Zionist who fought for Israel's statehood alongside his own father. The astronaut also fought for his country, in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Lebanon War in 1982.

"I was born in Israel as an Israeli, so I'm kind of a dream fulfillment for all this last-century generation," he says.

Ramon, 48, served as a fighter pilot during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, flying F-16s and F-4s. He was promoted in 1994 to lead Israel's department of operational requirement for weapon development and acquisition. He was selected as his country's first astronaut in 1997 and moved to Houston in 1998 to train for a shuttle flight.

He and his wife, Rona, have four children and call Tel Aviv home.

�--�--�

[bennyp81]

Bart Reed
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 10:17 AM

Los Angeles Daily News:
Saturday, February 01, 2003

NASA loses contact with shuttle, declares emergency; Debris seen in sky
By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Space shuttle Columbia apparently disintegrated in flames over Texas minutes before it was to land Saturday. TV video showed what appeared to be falling debris, as NASA declared an emergency and warned residents to beware of fallen objects.

Residents in north Texas reported hearing "a big bang" at about 9 a.m., the same time all radio and data communication with the shuttle and its crew of seven was lost.

In Washington, officials said President Bush had been informed and was awaiting more information from NASA. Officials said there was no indication of terrorism.

Six Americans and Israel's first astronaut were on board Columbia.

Inside Mission Control, flight controllers hovered in front of their computers, staring at the screens. The wives, husbands and children of the astronauts who had been waiting at the landing strip were gathered together by NASA and taken to secluded place.

"A contingency for the space shuttle has been declared," Mission Control repeated over and over as no word or any data came from Columbia.

In 42 years of U.S. human space flight, there had never been an accident during the descent to Earth or landing. On Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.

On Jan. 16, shortly after Columbia lifted off, a piece of insulating foam on its external fuel tank came off and was believed to have hit the left wing of the shuttle.

Leroy Cain, the lead flight director in Mission Control, assured reporters Friday that engineers had concluded that any damage to the wing was considered minor and posed no safety hazard.

Columbia had been aiming for a landing at 9:16 a.m. Saturday.

It was at an altitude of 207,000 feet over north-central Texas at a 9 a.m., traveling at 12,500 mph when Mission Control lost all contact and tracking data.

Gary Hunziker in Plano said he saw the shuttle flying overhead. "I could see two bright objects flying off each side of it," he told The Associated Press. "I just assumed they were chase jets."

Television footage showed a bright light followed by smoke plumes streaking diagonally through the sky. Debris appeared to break off into separate balls of light as it continued downward.

Security had been tight for the 16-day scientific research mission because of the presence of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut.

Ramon, 48, a colonel in Israel's air force and former fighter pilot, had survived two wars.

He became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in an increase in security, not only for Columbia's launch, but also for its planned landing.

Space agency officials feared his presence might make the shuttle more of a terrorist target.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said it had no immediate comment Saturday.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no threat made against the flight and that the shuttle, at an altitude of 207,000 feet over north-central Texas when it lost contact, was out of range of a surface-to-air missile.

Columbia's crew had completed 80-plus scientific research experiments during their time in orbit.

Only two of the seven astronauts had flown in space before, the shuttle's commander, Rick Husband, and Kalpana Chawla. The other five were rookies: pilot William McCool and Michael Anderson, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ramon.

Just in the past week, NASA observed the anniversary of its only two other space tragedies, the Challenger explosion, which killed all seven astronauts on board, and the Apollo space craft fire that killed three on Jan. 27, 1967.

--------------------------------
UPDATE: Officials say no immediate information that terrorism involved

WASHINGTON (AP) - Bush administration officials said they had no immediate information Saturday that terrorism was involved as NASA lost contact with the space shuttle Columbia.

President Bush, who was at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, was informed about the situation and awaited updates from NASA. A White House official said the president planned to return to the White House to deal with the shuttle's loss.

"There is no information at this time that this was a terrorist incident," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the Homeland Security Department. "Obviously the investigation is just beginning, but that is the information we have now."

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no threat had been made against the flight, and the shuttle, at an altitude of 207,000 feet over north-central Texas when it lost contact, was out of range of surface-to-air missiles.

A senior law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been some intelligence that raised concerns about a previously scheduled flight of Columbia, which was to have carried the same crew.

The intelligence, related to Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, was termed not credible, but the flight was postponed for other reasons.

There had been no troubling intelligence regarding this flight, officials said, and they do not believe terrorism was involved.

Bush was told about the situation by his chief of staff, Andrew Card, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

On a normally slow day, White House officials were scrambling to get into the office.

"We're all watching TV and devastated and concerned," said John Marburger, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

-----------------------------------------
Texas residents report seeing trails in sky and hearing loud noises
DALLAS (AP) - Residents of north Texas heard "a big bang" Saturday about the time the space shuttle Columbia disappeared on its way to a landing at Cape Canaveral.

"It was like a car hitting the house or an explosion. It shook that much," said John Ferolito, 60, of Carrolton, north of Dallas.

NASA declared an emergency after losing communication with Columbia as the ship soared across Texas at an altitude of about 200,000 feet, while traveling at six times the speed of sound. The space agency said search and rescue teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were alerted.

Gary Hunziker in Plano said he saw the shuttle flying overhead. "I could see two bright objects flying off each side of it," he told The Associated Press. "I just assumed they were chase jets."

"I was getting read to go out and I heard a big bang and the windows shook in the house," Ferolito told The AP. "I was getting ready to go out and I heard a big bang and the windows shook in the house. I thought it was a sonic boom."

Louisiana State Police in Bossier City, 182 miles east of Dallas, got so many calls that one trooper had to be assigned just to answer the phone.

"One said he saw a plane breaking up over Shreveport. One said he saw a big ball of fire. One guy said his house had a blast that shook his house," state police Sgt. Steve Robinson said. That call was from DeSoto Parish, south of the parish where Bossier City is located.

"Back in the 1980s, a Russian satellite re-entered the atmosphere," Robinson said. "We got lots of calls about that. Turned out it went down a thousand miles from here."

Þ--Þ--Þ

[bennyp81]

Bart Reed
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 10:20 AM

From the Sun-Sentinel South Florida
NASA loses contact with shuttle over Texas, declares emergency; NASA lowers flag next to its countdown clock to half-staff

By Marcia Dunn
Associated Press

February 1 2003, 7:53 AM PST

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Space shuttle Columbia apparently disintegrated in flames over Texas minutes before it was to land Saturday in Florida. TV video showed what appeared to be falling debris, as NASA declared an emergency and sent search teams to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

In north Texas, several residents reported hearing ``a big bang'' at about 9 a.m., the same time all radio and data communication with the shuttle and its crew of seven was lost.

Officials in Washington said that there was no immediate indication of terrorism, and that President Bush was informed and awaiting more information from NASA.

Just over an hour after the shuttle had been expected to land, officials at Kennedy Space Center announced over loud speakers that a statement on the fate of the shuttle would be issued shortly. NASA warned people on the ground in Texas to stay away from any fallen debris.

It was the 113th flight in the shuttle program's 22 years and the 28th flight for Columbia, NASA oldest shuttle. Six Americans and Israel's first astronaut were on board.

Inside Mission Control, flight controllers hovered in front of their computers, staring at the screens after contact was lost. The wives, husbands and children of the astronauts who had been waiting at the landing strip were gathered together by NASA and taken to a secluded place.

``A contingency for the space shuttle has been declared,'' Mission Control somberly repeated over and over as no word or any data came from Columbia.

In 42 years of U.S. human space flight, there had never been an accident during the descent to Earth or landing. On Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.

Shortly after Columbia lifted off Jan. 16, a piece of insulating foam on its external fuel tank came off and was believed to have hit the left wing of the shuttle.

Leroy Cain, the lead flight director in Mission Control, assured reporters Friday that engineers had concluded that any damage to the wing was considered minor and posed no safety hazard.

Columbia had been aiming for a landing at 9:16 a.m. Saturday.

It was at an altitude of 207,000 feet over north-central Texas at a 9 a.m., traveling at 12,500 mph, when Mission Control lost all contact and tracking data.

Gary Hunziker in Plano said he saw the shuttle flying overhead. ``I could see two bright objects flying off each side of it,'' he told The Associated Press. ``I just assumed they were chase jets.''

``The barn started shaking and we ran out and started looking around,'' said Benjamin Laster of Kemp, Texas. ``I saw a puff of vapor and smoke and saw big chunk of material fall.''

Television footage showed a bright light followed by smoke plumes streaking diagonally through the sky. Debris appeared to break off into separate balls of light as it continued downward.

Security had been extraordinarily tight for Columbia's 16-day scientific research mission because of the presence of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut.

Ramon, 48, a colonel in Israel's air force and former fighter pilot, had survived two wars. He became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in an increase in security, not only for Columbia's launch, but also for its planned landing. Space agency officials feared his presence might make the shuttle more of a terrorist target.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday there was no threat made against the flight and that the shuttle was out of range of a surface-to-air missile.

``The government of Israel and the people of Israel are praying together with the entire world for the safety of the astronauts on the shuttle Columbia,'' Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said in a statement.

Columbia's crew had completed 80-plus scientific research experiments during their time in orbit.

Only two of the seven astronauts had flown in space before, the shuttle's commander, Rick Husband, and Kalpana Chawla. The other five were rookies: pilot William McCool and Michael Anderson, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ramon.

Just in the past week, NASA observed the anniversary of its only two other space tragedies, the Challenger explosion, which killed all seven astronauts on board, and the Apollo spacecraft fire that killed three on Jan. 27, 1967.

�--�--�

John
User ID: 9510053 Feb 1st 11:22 AM

So sad! Why would anyone want to be an astronaut?

Robert
User ID: 9621663 Feb 1st 11:43 AM

John,

Yes it is sad.

Why would anyone want to be an astronaut?

I don't know who said it, but the answer is...

"Same reason people climb mountains... They Don't look at the risk, just the rush at the time they are doing it..."

Our paryers are out to their family and friends.

Bob

[bennyp81]

Bart Reed
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 1:01 PM

From the Sun-Sentinel, South Florida
7 die in space shuttle disaster; 'It's gone,' says a senior U.S. official; flags lowered to half-staff at NASA

By Michael Cabbage
Space Editor

Saturday, February 1, 2003, 10:12 AM PST

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during its return to Earth today, killing seven astronauts and dealing a stunning blow to America�s space program.

"It's gone,'' said a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said debris from the shuttle, spread across Texas and apparently some other states, had been positively identified.

Though there was no official word from NASA, the official said there was no hope for either the shuttle or its crew. Six Americans and the first Israeli astronaut were on board.

At Kennedy Space Center, the U.S. flag next to the countdown clock was lowered to half-staff. NASA officials wouldn't confirm that the crew was dead but said President Bush would be making an announcement. The flag over the White House was lowered to half-staff, as well.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that there was no immediate indication of terrorism and no specific threats had been made against Columbia.

The shuttle would have been out of range of a surface-to-air missile at the time, the official said. Almost three hours after the accident, the White House confirmed the shuttle was lost.

Witnesses in Central Texas reported hearing a loud explosion and seeing trails of flaming debris falling along the shuttle's flight path as Columbia traveled 38 miles high at six times the speed of sound en route to a planned 9:16 a.m. landing at Kennedy Space Center.

"We ran out and started looking around," said Benjamin Laster of Kemp, Texas. "I saw a puff of vapor and smoke and saw big chunk of material fall."

All appeared normal as Columbia, the oldest in the Shuttle fleet, fired its thrusters at 8:17 a.m. EST to leave orbit and land at KSC. For much of the fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere, communications between the ground and the shuttle routinely are lost. But when contact with Columbia was scheduled to resume about 9 a.m., ground controllers heard nothing but silence.

"Search and rescue teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been alerted," said James Hartsfield, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

"Any debris located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area should be avoided. It may be hazardous."

Officials in Washington said there was no immediate indication of terrorism, and that President Bush was informed and awaiting more information from NASA.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe was meeting with the astronauts' families, who had been waiting for the landing in Florida.

Speculation immediately focused on damage to Columbia's protective heat tiles that the ship suffered during launch from KSC on Jan. 16.

Launch pad cameras detected a piece of insulating foam from the shuttle's external fuel tank breaking off and striking Columbia's left wing.

Minor tile damage during launch is not unusual. Leroy Cain, NASA's flight director for Columbia's return home, said Friday that the wing damage was not considered serious and no unusual precautions were being taken.

"We can't say with great detail the degree of the damage other than all of the analysis suggests that it would be very minor in terms of the amount of tile that might actually be missing," Cain said Friday.

"The analysis says that we have plenty of margin in those areas in that regard and that the impact could not have been ..... enough to take out any significant amount of tile."

Columbia's crew consists of the commander, Air Force Col. Rick Douglas Husband; the co-pilot, Navy Cmdr. William C. McCool; mission specialists Kalpana Chawla; Navy Capt. David M. Brown; Air Force Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson; Navy Cmdr. Laurel Blair Salton Clark; and Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut.

The disaster occurred almost exactly 17 years after Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch in January 28, 1986, killing seven astronauts.

For Grace Corrigan, the news Saturday was a reminder of that accident, which killed her daughter, elementary school teacher Christa McAuliffe.

"I'm not doing too well," Corrigan said from her home in Framingham, Mass. "All I know is it's very upsetting. I feel the same way everyone around the country feels."

Columbia was coming home from a successful mission to do science research in weightlessness 170 miles above Earth. During the shuttle's 16 days in space, the crew split into two shifts to work around the clock on 80 or so physical, materials and life science experiments.

Their laboratory was a 20-foot by 14-foot pressurized aluminum module inside Columbia's cargo bay that the astronauts accessed through a tunnel from the crew compartment.

NASA officials were elated the flight had accomplished all of its major goals. It was the 113th flight in the shuttle program's 22 years and the 28th flight for Columbia.

"This has been a very successful mission," Cain said Friday. "It's far exceeded folks' expectations from a science standpoint so we are very pleased."

The landing was the first time behind the controls for astronaut Husband, a 45-year-old former Air Force test pilot assigned to command Columbia after copiloting a previous shuttle flight. It was co-pilot McCool's first landing.

In 42 years of U.S. human space flight, there had never been an accident during the descent to Earth or landing.

But this was the U.S. space program's third fatal accident involving astronauts. Apollo 1 caught fire on the launch pad, killing its three-man crew during a countdown test in 1967.

After the Challenger accident in 1986, most of NASA's attention was focused on safety issues surrounding the shuttle's launch. Landing was considered less risky.

"I worry a lot less during this [landing] than the launch," said veteran NASA shuttle manager Wayne Hale, who supervised many launches and landings. "There are just fewer ways of getting in trouble during entry."

An automated landing system never is used, however, making touchdown subject to human error. If trouble occurs, there aren't many options.

Because the shuttle lands without power, it glides steeply out of orbit after circling a quarter of the way around the globe.

"It is the one task that the pilots train most extensively for as far as the hands-on flying," former astronaut Richard Covey said. "There is no margin for error in the landing sequence."

Unlike the pilot of a powered airplane, a shuttle commander can't open the throttle, pull up and circle around to try again. Once the shuttle fires its engines to leave orbit and re-enter Earth's atmosphere, it is committed to coming down.

The landing attempt was the 62nd for a shuttle at KSC, compared with 49 at Edwards Air Force Base and one at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Nineteen were night landings, 14 of which have been at KSC. The other five were at Edwards.

The accident occurred during Columbia's 28th flight. It was the 88th mission since Challenger's 1986 explosion.

That disaster, NASA's first accident in flight, sidelined the space agency for 32 months.

With more than two dozen additional space station assembly flights scheduled aboard the shuttle during the next five years, the future of the station, as well as the shuttle program itself, could be in jeopardy.

The influential chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, recently said the loss of another orbiter could set human spaceflight back for years.

"If we do lose another orbiter, we can't replace it as quickly as we replaced Challenger," Sensenbrenner said. "We also are considerably behind as the result of some management failures and some funding failures to go to the next stage for a new reusable launch vehicle that could have human beings on board."

Columbia's mission was the first of six scheduled for 2003. The next scheduled shuttle flight is a mission to the international space station aboard Atlantis in early March.

But NASA's three other orbiters - Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery - likely will be grounded pending a review of Columbia's accident.

NASA won't have a vehicle other than the shuttle capable of carrying people into space until at least the end of the decade.

However, this morning's accident could accelerate efforts to find a replacement. In 1996, President Clinton directed NASA to find a successor vehicle that was 10 times cheaper and 100 times safer.

However, the space agency pulled the plug in March 2001 on the $1.3 billion X-33 program, the best-known effort to develop a prototype for a next-generation spacecraft.

Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin hoped to use X-33 as a steppingstone to a new full-scale reusable launch vehicle dubbed VentureStar.

But the program was stalled by a series of engineering problems. With the project hopelessly behind schedule and over budget, additional government funding was cut off.

As a result, there is no viable alternative to the shuttle on the horizon. Much of the funding for developing a possible replacement was shifted last year to development of a small orbital spaceplane that would serve as a crew escape ship for the station.

One option being considered would launch the spaceplane with station-bound crew and cargo on U.S. expendable rockets in 10 years or so.

Michael Cabbage can be reached at [e-mail] or 321-639-0522.

[bennyp81]

Bart Reed
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 3:56 PM

Los Angeles Times: UPDATE
Space Shuttle Breaks Up on Reentry; All 7 Dead
By Stephanie Chavez and Geoffrey Mohan
Times Staff Writers

February 1, 2003, 1:37 PM PST

The space shuttle Columbia exploded and broke apart in the skies over Texas Saturday 16 minutes before its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center, killing the seven astronauts on board and scattering debris across a 120-mile swath of Northern Texas.

"The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors," said President George W. Bush, addressing the nation. He saluted the daring and idealism of the seven astronauts, saying "their cause in which they died will continue."

Dramatic video images of the shuttle's descent showed several white trails streaking across the blue sky, and residents reported loud and extended roars, ground shaking and several sonic booms.

"This is indeed a tragic day for the NASA family and for the families of the astronauts . . . likewise a tragic day for the nation," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe in the agency's first statement to the nation.

President Bush telephoned the families of the seven astronauts and flew back to the White House from Camp David. Bushed pledged his "full and immediate support" to determine the cause of the accident. Administration officials said there was no indication that terrorism was involved.

"It's too early to speculate as to the cause," said Bill Readdy, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight. "Obviously we are looking at all the data. . . . We will be able to piece together the puzzle so we can solve what happened."

Speculation immediately focused on damage to Columbia's protective heat tiles that the ship suffered during launch from Kennedy on Jan. 16.

Launch pad cameras detected a piece of insulating foam from the shuttle's external fuel tank breaking off and striking Columbia's left wing.

Minor tile damage during launch is not unusual. Leroy Cain, NASA's flight director for Columbia's return home, said Friday that the wing damage was not considered serious and no unusual precautions were being taken.

Ron Dittemore, space shuttle program manager, said at a press conference today that "as we look at that, in hindsight, that impact was on the left side," where the first indication of abnormal occurences was reported during re-entry. "We can�t discount that there might be a connection." He cautioned, however, against a "rush to judgment."

The first indications of an abnormal re-entry came at about 7:53 a.m., CST, when a flight controller reported a loss of temperature readings in hydraulic systems on the left side of the aircraft, followed by loss of temperature readings in the same area, then a similar loss of readings in the left landing gear, according to Milt Heflin, chief flight director for the mission.

At about 8 a.m., the crew acknowledged the sensor trouble, after which radio contact was lost, Heflin said. �That�s when we clearly began to know we had a bad day,� Heflin added somberly.

At the time contact was lost, the shuttle was at about 207,135 feet, traveling at mach 18.3, according to Heflin.

Readdy said NASA's immediate focus is comforting the family members of the crew, whom he said were handling the news with "an incredible amount of dignity."

"They knew the crew was absolutely dedicated to the mission they were performing," Readdy said, adding that family members told NASA that "we must find out what happened and fix it and move on."

On board were: Commander Rick Husband, 45; Pilot William McCool, 41; Michael Anderson, 43, payload commander; Kalpana Chawla, 41, astronaut and scientist; David Brown, 46, a Navy captain, pilot and doctor; Laurel Clark, 41, scientist and medical officer; Ilan Ramon, 48, a colonel in Israeli's air force and the first Israeli in space.

It was the 113th flight of the nation's shuttle program and while "unfortunately people have a tendency to look at it as something routine," Readdy said, "this was a very, very risky."

O'Keefe said NASA, after losing communication with the shuttle, immediately initiated its "contingency plan," preserving all information.

A two-pronged investigation, one involving government agencies�including NASA, the Air Force,
and the Department of Transportation�and another independent panel has been formed, O'Keefe said.

The shuttle was traveling about 12,500 miles per hour when communication was lost 16 minutes before it was to land.

VIPs were seen being led away from a grandstand near the shuttle's landing strip by NASA officials after reports of the disaster. In Washington, the White House flag was at half staff.

Angela Arllotto, a Cape Canaveral tourist from Williamsburg, Pa., said: "I was so excited to see the shuttle come down. It doesn't seem possible."

Investigators were arriving in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Saturday morning to examine the orbiter path and to secure debris.

"We urge anyone who believes they have discovered or found any material to stay away from it" and call local police, O"Keefe said. The debris could be contaminated with the shuttle's poisonous propellant, he said.

Eyewitnesses reported debris scattered across northern Texas with residents coming across pieces in fields and on roads, including what appeared to be a door from the orbiter.

"Debris has been sighted in north central Texas. Search and rescue has been dispatched in Dallas-Fort Worth area," NASA said in a statement on its Web site. There were reports of a vast 120-square-mile debris field.

Bits of machinery and other metal debris were found strewn across the city of Nacogdoches, Texas, this morning.

"It's all over Nacogdoches," said James Milford, owner of Milford Barber shop downtown. "There are several little pieces, some parts of machinery. There's been a lot of pieces about 3 feet wide."

Nacogdoches, situated in the piney woods region of East Texas, 135 miles northeast of Houston, activated its emergency operations center and sent emergency crews to the reported debris.

"At this point we're just trying to get it out to the public to not touch or tamper with this debris in any manner due to the possibility of toxic substances being on the debris," police spokesman Greg Sowell said.

National Guardsmen were sent to protect the debris.

Jeff Hanthingy, a 29-year-old dentist, said he found a chunk of debris in his office. "It came through the roof of my office. It's about a foot-long metal bracket," he said.

Ed Rohner, Nacogdoches airport manager, said some type of tank ended up on a runway.

"We have one large, several foot in diameter, some type of tank that was in the middle of a runway. We've got pieces of debris all along the entrance road to the airport," Rohner said. "I don't know what it is. It's a large, round metal tank, several feet in diameter."

[bennyp81]

Bart Reed (cont'd)
User ID: 8854703 Feb 1st 3:56 PM

Take-off and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere are the most dangerous parts of a space mission. In 42 years of U.S. human space flight, there had never been an accident in the descent to Earth or landing. Challenger exploded just after take-off.

It was almost 17 years to the day that the Challenger shuttle exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts on board. The seven astronauts on board Columbia had observed a minute's silence in their memory Tuesday.

It was 32 months after the Challenger disaster before NASA flew a space shuttle again.

Columbia was NASA's oldest shuttle and first flew in 1981.

The shuttle's seven astronauts had closed out science experiments conducted on the mission, which had been deemed a success by scientists and NASA officials. The shuttle did not visit the International Space Station on this trip.

The fate of the International Space Station, a $95 billion project nearing the final stages of completion, could hang in the balance after these events.

The three astronauts now living there have food, air and water to last for months but the station's orbit above the planet needs to be boosted by a visiting shuttle periodically.

The next space shuttle mission was to have left on March 1 to carry a new segment to the space station, with astronaut Eileen Collins in command of the shuttle Atlantis.

A Boeing company official said space station work at Kennedy was halted soon after news of the tragedy. Boeing works on space station components at Kennedy Space Center before they are launched

Space Shuttle Columbia was NASA's oldest space plane and the first of its vaunted orbital fleet, flying its maiden mission in 1981.

Columbia was the first of the U.S. space agency's winged spaceships -- the others are Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour and the ill-fated Challenger -- that launched the era of reusable space freighters, replacing the expendable rockets used during the first two decades of manned space flight.

It took off Jan. 16 for a 16-day mission, its 28th voyage. Columbia was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in March 1979 and lifted off for the first time April 12, 1981, successfully completing its orbital test flights.

The 22-year-old spacecraft underwent more than 100 modifications in September 1999 at Rockwell International's Palmdale, California, assembly plant.

The orbiter returned to the Kennedy Space Center in February 1992 after the $70 million tuneup, which included upgrades to make a longer stay in space possible.

"Columbia is a safer shuttle today than the day it first launched," astronaut John Young, who commanded Columbia's first space mission, said at the time. "Columbia has gotten better as it has gotten older. It's gone from test flights to doing things we once never dreamed we could do."

The modifications included a new, lighter thingypit that used less electricity, inspection of more than 200 miles of wire and enhanced heat protection on the craft's wings.

Columbia is named after the Boston, Massachusetts-based sloop that in 1792 maneuvered past the dangerous sandbar at the mouth of a river extending more than 1,000 miles through what is today southeast British Columbia, Canada, and the Washington-Oregon border.

�--�--�

Roberto
User ID: 9161143 Feb 1st 7:27 PM

Not too sound too un-PC ... this is a tragic story and all ... but is the Expo LRT website really the place to devote a folder to NASA and space exploration? If so, then there should also be a topic devoted to airlines, which is at least a little bit closer to urban rail than rockets and space shuttles. I am a former airline employee, so I would have lots to discuss on that topic

Robert
User ID: 0638514 Feb 1st 9:28 PM

Roberto,

This topic is not under EXPO. The webmaster is the one who would set up an AIRLINE topic. Do you have a suggested name and brief description for one?

Maybe...

Title:
Airlines, Boats and Cars as the ABCs of travel

Description:
Other means of travel, advantages and disadvantages vs. Bus and Rail.

Bob

EC
User ID: 0436494 Feb 1st 11:55 PM

Roberto,

some of us want to grieve no matter where it is...let us grieve

Ken Alpern
User ID: 0923684 Feb 2nd 2:40 AM

Like military personnel, transit advocates who spend their time, money and energy to make the world better, and public servants who give their all for their neighbors--astronauts have made and will continue to make the world a better place.

God bless the Challenger Seven and, now, the Columbia Seven--may they rest in peace, and may the space program for which they believed in so deeply continue to push the limits of technology for which we have benefited so richly here on earth.

[Gokhan]

Space Shuttle external fuel tank between Exposition Park Rose Garden and California Science Center.