Columbia, page 1

One thing I found particularly interesting (if not disturbing) on the Columbia disaster is the photographs that a California man took of the shuttle as it flew over on it's doomed re-entry.
Apparently the pictures show a bolt of lightning/plasma discharge or something similar right before the shuttle begins breaking up.
Link to San Francisco Chronicle article:

www.sfgate.com.../chronicle/archive/2003/02/02/MN221641.DTL&type=printable

sfgate.com.../c/a/2003/02/05/MN192153.DTL

This phenomenon could possibly be explained away as lightning - but common meteorological lightning is not known to be an issue at 400,000 ft.
In fact, nothing that could be called 'lightning' occurs beyond the troposphere, or however far a thunderstorm might poke into the stratosphere. However, there are certainly various high-altitude electrical phenomena.
I have considered the electrical phenomena known as sprites and blue jets but the destructive effects generated by such phenomena would be nil against a ceramic tiled space craft... even if one or two tiles were indeed damaged by falling styrofoam... (which i find highly improbable - if not laughably impossible)

What further complicates the explaining away of this as a natural meteorological event - AND fuels conspiracy theories is the fact that the government will not release the photos to the general public.

Considering it could be in the US government's best interest (at least from a PR point of view) to dispell any conspiracy theories on the demise of the shuttle, makes it all the more suspicious as to why the pictures have not been released.

And to top it all off is the purportedly now unavailable bit of video footage (last seen on CNN) showing the shuttle as it arced across the Texas sky - the particular video clip in question corresponds with reports from ground observers of what appears to be a "chaser" aircraft flying along side the doomed shuttle.... at 400,000 ft? ... at mach 6+ ?

I actually think I saw this particular bit of tape the day the shuttle went down, I remember looking at it and thinking that I was seeing chaser aircraft along side the Columbia, but I have not seen this video clip since the first day.
At any rate, there certainly are some mysteries yet to be uncovered concerning the Columbia's demise.

Nasa has lost doing what it did when Kennedy gave it a goal, since Nixon didn't want to glorify his arch enemies project Nasa took a turn for the worst under him. Since that time they have been declining with no clear objectives, kissing congressional leaders you know what to get money for project that each will only approve if built in their state.......

home.earthlink.net...

My attempt at getting back into the saddle and riding our dreams into the sunset.......

Michael

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