I’m watching the local news in Dallas. I heard a heavy thump this morning, and thought something fell from the trees onto my roof. Apparently many people in the Dallas area are reporting the same thing. Radar shows what might be debris falling across East Texas.
This is awful. Those poor astronauts and their families.
Oh, no, no, no… 
It could also have been a sheet of ice from the external fuel tank.
A caller to CNN from Texas said he saw a “plane” that seemed to be too close to the shuttle. He said it looked like a commercial jet. Of course, commercial jets might be at 40,000 feet or so and the Shuttle was at 200,000 feet. Obviously the guy was mistaken, and CNN also pointed that out.
He’ll undoubtedly already know about it from the radio, or at least from conversation when he refuels.
I don’t like the phrase “accident”, as air crashes almost always have a chain of events that lead up to them. But accidents do indeed happen from time to time. I don’t see any way this could possibly be a terrorist act. Just a tragic accident.
Hydrazine is not radioactive, but can be fatal if inhaled or absorbed through the skin. And I think that it is Hydrazine that they use, along with oxygen, but I am not sure.
I was only five years old in early 1986, so it never really hit me at the time… This has hit me.
This is horrible. My prayers go out to those astronauts and their families.
Given the extreme security measures that surround shuttle stagings and take-offs, it is almost impossible that anyone could have sabotaged anything.
As for a missile on re-entry, or some ridiculous theory like that, reports indicate that the shuttle was at around 200,000 feet (40 miles), travelling around 10,000 mph when it broke up. You’d have to be quite a shot to hit that. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that’s out of the range of any surface-to-air missile.
A sad day, a sad sad day.
They think that the thing that broke off (they’re saying it may have been ice) may have damaged some of the tiles. I’ve heard that even oil from your fingers on those tiles can create a hot spot on re-entry that can cause problems, so if the ice, say, knocked one of those off, it could have been responsible for the explosion.
Wasn’t one of the people on board a Holocaust survivor, or the son of one? I remember hearing something about an Israeli Holocaust survivor being on board. Any truth to this?
There was a hydrazine spill over by the F-16s when I was at Edwards. SOme of my co-workers were exposed. I don’t remember how bad the exposure was, but I remember hearing that exposure could lead to liver damage that will eventually kill you.
Note that when the Shuttle lands, they spend a lot of time ventilating it before the astronauts are allowed to come out.
I just heard that it was travelling at about 1,200 mph (NASA spokesman on CNN). That seems slow for that altitude.
The Israeli was the son of a Holocaust survivor, he brought a menora into space with him as a commemoration of those who perished.
“Like a pillar of cloud
The smoke lingers high in the air
In fascination
With the eyes of the world
We stare…”
RUSH - Countdown
Somehow, it seemed appropriate to play this song that praises the magic and technology of the Shuttle. Just thought I’d share the lyrics.
12,500 MPH is what the NASA news rep just stated, which seems more in tune with what little I know of STS ops.
There was an Israeli Astronaut on board, yes. He was carrying a miniature Torah created by a holocaust survivor from his home country.
That much I’m aware of.
Such a sad day…
I started listening to Fox but they’re still going through every morbid detail and every worst case scenario. I finally said “there’s no reason for me to be listening to this,” and switched it over to CBS where it seems to be a little bit better.
They say there is a chance for survival. Hope the astronauts have made it.
airdisc, to be a holocaust survivor, the person would have to be at least 60 years old, so it’s doubtful that he’s an astronaut on this flight. The son of one is a possibility though. There was an Israeli on board.
Brutus has it right. Mission Control has just talked to the public and did not mention the word ‘radioactive’, but it’s still nasty tetragenic stuff.
Only fifteen minutes from landing. At least there seems to have been no warning–these poor folks never knew what was happening.
Thanks. I mis-heard.
I’m too sad to say anything coherent. Godspeed to Columbia and her crew.