The Columbia Accident!

Ive just read an article printed in The Washington Monthly in April 1980, Before Columbia even flew its first mission. It details all the faults with the shuttle program and near the end even describes the worst case scenario:

But you're in luck--the launch goes fine. Once you get into space, you check to see if any tiles are damaged. If enough are, you have a choice between Plan A and Plan B. Plan A is hope they can get a rescue shuttle up in time. Plan B is burn up coming back.

Isnt this exactly how columbia was lost?
And this was written all of 20 years before STS-107 flew!!!

The warnings were there and yet the shuttles still flew with the loss of two!!!

Heres the link to the full article:
(its quite long but worth reading)
www.washingtonmonthly.com...

[edit on 4/3/2005 by MickeyDee]

Um, there are probably contingency reports stashed away in the Pentagon for everything that's gone wrong in the history of ever. This isn't a prediction.

I admit that putting the word prediction was probably wrong so im sorry!
But why was the shuttl ever allowed to fly when even run of the mill peopl from washington knew how fragile the heat proof tiles were?

Sorry but possibilities are NOT predictions. I can imagine all the things in these reports that never happen. Thousands-to-one IMO.

Sorry but possibilities are NOT predictions

Ive changed the title for that same reason, sorry!

How many sucessful shuttle flights were there? That is your homework Mickey. This is a dangerous game. Don't take out your jealousy here.

You are loading a giant barrel full of rocket fuel and sending it into space by lighting it on fire? Do you think that this is safe at all? If I had the chance to fly into space, I would risk my life knowingly to do it. So would those who volunteered to fly on those missions knowing the risks. It is a matter of human nature. I want to explore, and so do most of us. That flight is just an unfortuneate consequence of that need for exploration and knowledge.

By the way, maybe one of our mars rovers will find the ramins of one of yours.

[edit on 3/4/2005 by Seapeople]

How many sucessful shuttle flights were there? That is your homework Mickey.

One hundred and eleven!!!

I will give that to you as correct.

However the actual number was 113, and specific to columbia was 28. These are just space flights with the nasa shuttle program. This does not include all of the apollo missions and countless others.

However the actual number was 113

The question was how many successful flights was there!

Yes there were 113 altogether, but Challenger and Columbia were not succesful flights!

IT is all well and good to go out and inspect tiles, but until the next Shuttle flight there was never anyway to repair damage to the tiles or replaces them short of sending up another space craft with a repair kit.

Also the Challanger disaster was not tile related

Also the Challanger disaster was not tile related

i know, it was an o-ring

If they really did know it was faulty they'd still flown it. It's better to take the chance and show off what a billion dollars can build than not to fly it because its "faulty", thus resulting in a decrease of funds given to NASA from Congress. Remember John Glenn? NASA will do anything to get more funds, even if that means putting astronauts at risk.
I lived in Texas at the time of the disaster and it made us sick there, the body parts of the astronauts were actually found although they were burned. I remember hearing on TV about the helmet of one being found and a finger being found. It was a horrible time.

The shuttle are worth alot more than a billion dollars

Originally posted by MickeyDee
The shuttle are worth alot more than a billion dollars

Sorry I didn't research the exact amount.

Originally posted by MickeyDee
Ive just read an article printed in The Washington Monthly in April 1980, Before Columbia even flew its first mission. It details all the faults with the shuttle program and near the end even describes the worst case scenario:

But you're in luck--the launch goes fine. Once you get into space, you check to see if any tiles are damaged. If enough are, you have a choice between Plan A and Plan B. Plan A is hope they can get a rescue shuttle up in time. Plan B is burn up coming back.

Isnt this exactly how columbia was lost?
And this was written all of 20 years before STS-107 flew!!!

The warnings were there and yet the shuttles still flew with the loss of two!!!

Heres the link to the full article:
(its quite long but worth reading)
www.washingtonmonthly.com...

[edit on 4/3/2005 by MickeyDee]

Problem is...they didnt know they had shuttle damage until later video review after the incident.

The wierd thing about Columbia is a dream I had the morning of its failed re-entry. I was in a rural area with a bunch of other people picking up burnt pieces of the shuttle but I was thinking why am I doing this because all of Challenger's pieces fell into the ocean. I woke up that morning around 6am(EST)to take my mom to the airport and was more worried about her flight than anything else, got home around 7:30am when I went back to sleep only to get woken up a hour later by my dad to tell me that Columbia disappeared from radar, as soon as I saw the television it all clicked and the earlier reports of the piece falling off the external tank(ET) made in clear to me what happened, and right about then all the news channels started showing the film of Columbia streaking across the sky and breaking up. To make things worse I had to leave the next day for my grandfather's funeral. With my dad being part of NASA and working at many landings, that 1st week of Febuary was a bad one for my family.

I have had a recurring dream about another failed shuttle launch, this one where the shuttle has to make a RTLS abort landing shortly after lift off and it is the last shuttle mission with the existing setup. I am not sure if it lands succesfully because the dream that it made to the landing site the setup of the ET and SRBs looked more like the Russian's Buran setup than the conventional American setup and the ET was a metalic silver instead of the orange foam color.

Originally posted by jrod
I have had a recurring dream about another failed shuttle launch, this one where the shuttle has to make a RTLS abort landing shortly after lift off and it is the last shuttle mission with the existing setup. I am not sure if it lands succesfully because the dream that it made to the landing site the setup of the ET and SRBs looked more like the Russian's Buran setup than the conventional American setup and the ET was a metalic silver instead of the orange foam color.

The next shuttle launch date is May 15th for NASA.

I know , I cant wait, though that date keeps on getting pushed back, i wont believe the date they give until they roll it out to the pad. Those pads look so lonely without a shuttle on them for so long.

The next shuttle launch date is May 15th for NASA.

NASA havent given a launch date yet, they've just given the dates of the launch window which is a space of about 2-3 weeks!

They(NASA and whoever launches all those unmanned rockets) used to give an exact time and date for every launch until 9-11-'01 or shortly after. Something about a security risk or something, usually the day of they give a launch window so all the boats and planes will have a heads up to stay out of the flight path.