Since I already decided to hold off on my hiking trip until Sunday I stayed up late the night before and slept in this morning until about 10:30am. When I got up and checked various bulletin boards, I say someone make mention of the space shuttle Columbia being lost. I immediately flipped on the television to Fox News and saw the same images of the fireball streaking through the skies of Texas.
Weather radar stations throughout Texas could observe the ’streak’ of debris falling towards the earth:
I stayed glued to the television for most of the rest of the day and watched the continuous coverage. The NASA news conference at 3:30 gave some technical details. It seems that some of the temperature sensors from the left-wing of the vehicle went offline and then there were some sensors relating to he left tire also going offline. As they were investigating this, all contact was lost with the vehicle. It is surmised that this is the initial point of catastrophic failure and breakup. Some are speculating that there was a thermal event in which the left wing was damage (missing tiles?) and during entry to the atmosphere when the rolling maneuvers were taking place as the shuttle rolled onto the left wing, something gave out.
I remember the space shuttle Challenger blowing up as well. I think I as seven years old and we all watched the news that evening and saw Ronald Regan’s speech to the country. It is a sad time despite ‘only’ 7 people being lost considering many more die each day from automobile accidents. I hope NASA can get back on its feet quickly as I personally feel that space exploration is important.
Interesting.