NASA puzzles over mysterious debris that struck shuttle

I'm watching the news conference now right here:
www.awecast.tv...

I don't know if they have the entire mission, but they have every time I've looked.

They just said that the piece of Tyvek that broke off of the top of the SRB was at + :10. They also admitted that a seperate object fell from above at the same time, but did not strike the orbiter. The photo analysts have not yet identified the object.

It looked like two unlucky birds trying to find a landing spot...poor things!
...just my opinion!

There is a very small chance that this could be space debris even at +10secs as there is a constant raining down of debris everyday (one day 'something' falling from space is bound to have effect on a launch) although mainly small pieces as the larger objects usually break up or burn up on entry, a fairer chance at post 80secs if that observation was correct, just take a look at this post and illustration courtesy of our mutual friend Mark Roazhar posted in another thread.

Originally posted by Mark Roazhar
yes its entirely possible

Here's map of object tracked by NASA in orbit




Not all object have the same orbit. Some move fast, some slow, some dont, some can even change their orbit.

Nothing should be dismissed as we should always expect the unexpected yet never be ignorant to the obvious.

Regards and safe sky watching S_G

reply to post by xSMOKING_GUNx

Wow. Imagine the odds. Space debris rarely ever falls down to earth. As an example, think of how many times your car has been hit by space debris.

Now imagine the odds of space debris not only reaching ground, but spectacularly hitting a space shuttle, of all things on earth.

And now, guess what, this happens during a lauch of this very space shuttle!!!!!!

These guys should have bought lottery tickets instead of becoming astronauts.

On a serious note. Now we have NASA puzzled at what happened during lauch. Why? Because they were stupid enough to launch at night. Now they don't have clear video of what happened. This is Challenger-era over confidence all over again. Night launches are stupid.

it was osama firing his ak47 at it


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[edit on 14-3-2008 by Jbird]

reply to post by Netstriker


Lol, I knew someone would find it funny.

But the effort here is to deny ignorance, and it would be ignorant to believe that reentry of space debris will never be caught on film, especially with high tech NASA cameras, or in fact have an effect on any random person or event.

There is around 100 - 200 large(ish) objects reentering the earth's atmosphere every year and literally thousands of smaller pieces, thats multiple pieces every day.

Over the past few weeks hundreds of small pieces of that satellite the Americans annihilated along with the remnants of the missile used to blow it to hell have been falling to earth, is there not a chance a piece of it could hit my house, your car or even a rocket launch?

I know it is an overwhelmingly small chance, but there is still a chance no matter how slim.

Space junk has got to come down somewhere.

Take a look at this Link for annual reentry statistics.

And this Link for some wonderful photographs.

I am not saying that it was a piece of space junk, I am just saying it cant be completely dismissed, just considered extremely unlikely.

Don't take this the wrong way, it makes ME laugh to think about the sheer bad luck and the odds of the possibility of something like this happening to NASA as long as nobody gets hurt.

As a comparison of odds, what would mine be of winning multiple millions twice on the national lottery, pretty slim, billion to 1? I dont know, but somebody did, with the same numbers.

Anything is possible, even things we havent dreamed up yet.

Winning the lottey for a third time and THEN getting hit on the head by space junk?

Lol

Kindest regards S_G