crew of columbia

this is a tribute to the men and women of sts-107 columbia
Name: Rick D. Husband

Position: Commander

History: Husband, 45, made his second trip into space. The U.S. Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer piloted a shuttle flight in 1999, which included the first docking with the international space station.

Name: William C. McCool

Position: Pilot

History: The 40-year-old former test pilot made his first foray into space. The U.S. Navy commander and Naval Academy graduate was responsible for maneuvering the shuttle as part of several experiments.

Name: Michael P. Anderson

Position: Payload Commander

History: Anderson, 42, went into orbit once before, a 1998 shuttle flight that docked with the Russian space station Mir. The U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist was responsible for the shuttle science mission

Name: David M. Brown

Position: Mission Specialist

History: The U.S. Navy captain made his first flight into space. Brown, 46, an aviator and flight surgeon, was working on many experiments, including numerous biological ones.

Name: Kalpana Chawla

Position: Mission Specialist

History: Born in India in 1961, Chawla earned an aerospace engineering doctorate from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Chawla, who has logged more than 375 hours in space, was the prime robotic arm operator on a shuttle flight in 1997.

Name: Laurel Clark

Position: Mission Specialist

History: Clark, 41, a U.S. Navy commander and flight surgeon, was making her first flight into space. A medical school graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Clark was taking part in a variety of biological experiments.

Name: Ilan Ramon

Position: Payload Specialist

History: Ramon, 47, is the first Israeli astronaut. A colonel and former fighter pilot in the Israeli air force, he saw combat experience in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Lebanon War in 1982.




[Edited on 2-2-2003 by f16falcon]

Nice tribute f16. May God bless their souls. May God blesss their families. My prayers are with them tonight.

Boy what I wouldn't give to be an astronaut myself Even if the shuttles blew up every other time

I think too many people are going to use this to cut funding, I hope we have another "Frank Borman" to stand up there and tell the senate comittee to kiss their A$s...

Sincerely,
no signature

F16falcon, OUTSTANDING POST!!!!!!!!!! May GOD bless them, they are "All" real heros. They did there job knowingly in the face of danger to better "All" of man kind.


A ship is safe in the harber, but that's not what it was built for"

Hmm it's kinda ironic, even though they're dead, they're still luckier than all of us

It's one thing to live long and finally die and "go to heaven" it's another thing to go to heaven when you're alive.

Sincerely,
no signature

Great post f16falcon. I just wished the tiles were checked for damage. Nasa seen something come off, during lift-off. Something that could have damaged a tile or two. They should have been inspected in space and repaired. Something this important shouldn't have been ignored.

well it's sad that they died but at least they died doing something they enjoyed instead of dieing in a car accident or being shot

When will you people GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS.

NASA doesn't have the BUDGET to # up, that's the CONGRESS'S fault.

They couldn't check the tiles they had no EVA suits no time no robo-arm no EVA manuvering pack. (They might have had the suits but without a way to get to that part of the ship they'd been useless anyways)

There is NO way to repair tiles in space, at most they could ONLY have gone to say the ISS, but!!! Here's where congress gets cheap again.

NASA can't afford spare fuel.

They have enough fuel to make scheduled burns only, and barely any spare fuel if they screw up.

All the fuel MUST be used to get back to earth, so going to the ISS would have never been an option.

Basically because NASA has no budget, once you are past the initial abort stage (which they were) you're at nature's mercy 100%.

If something goes wrong, you're screwed.

Sincerely,
no signature

Originally posted by FreeMason

There is NO way to repair tiles in space, at most they could ONLY have gone to say the ISS, but!!! Here's where congress gets cheap again.

That's not true. There is an EVA repair kit. What's impossible is the replacement of tiles in space (because there are so many types/sizes, it's impossible to bring one of each along for the ride). Unfortunately, no one on this mission was trained in EVA (or so I heard), so there was no way to determine if repair was needed.






[Edited on 3-2-2003 by William]

actually william they knew about the fragment that hit the left wing and they had a meeting of engineers to discuss it and at the time they thought that it posed no threat to the mission and this all happening before the shuttle blew up

Well then I have a few questions????

Who saw this peice of something hit the wing? Is there a picture or a video of that happening?.

How could they(mission control) have made the determination all was well without looking at the bottom side (wing) of the shuttle?.

Could one of the crew members on the shuttle have done a space walk to look at the under belly or wing of the shuttle?. If not why??

If damage was found could they have made a dash for the space station or stayed up longer to get some help or untill help came.?

Why would nobody on the "crew" be able to do a manual visual check first hand?.

Who are the guys who sat at the meeting "on earth" and made the conclusion that nothing was wrong and where or how did they get there facts?



[Edited on 29-11-2002 by Skeptical Believer]

It's on the launch video.

This stuff is pretty soft.........there again, so are the tiles......

Not really.

Michael Anderson and David Brown were trained to do a spacewalk. But going under the Shuttle would have been out because they had no jet-powered suits, or hand-holds.

Columbia didn't have the fuel to reach the ISS, let alone the docking equipment. It couldn't have stayed up more than another week at the most, too short a time for rescue.

Did you spot the crack in your radiator prior it failing on that cold day? You didn't have 10,000 to check.........

Hard to make judgements when you can't see the problem

[Edited on 3-2-2003 by CupidStunt]

[Edited on 3-2-2003 by CupidStunt]

[Edited on 3-2-2003 by CupidStunt]

Originally posted by William
What's impossible is the replacement of tiles in space

Well if you'll be particular with words "replacement" instead of "repair" then I did mean the replacement one.

I am assuming what you're talking about the repair would be some sort filler for any tiles "damaged" not missing?

Though I don't see how that would be a fully good fix either, but still better than nothing.

But there is NO way they could have fixed whatever happend up there with Columbia.

Sincerely,
no signature

Originally posted by FreeMason
But there is NO way they could have fixed whatever happend up there with Columbia.

You seem so certain of yourself. How do you know this to be fact?

"Boy what I wouldn't give to be an astronaut myself Even if the shuttles blew up every other time."
_____________________________________________

What a stupid STATEMENT! Safety SHOULD BE NASA"S HIGHEST PRIORITY!!! We are sending our most fit and intelligent people in Space and their well-being should considered! If money is the reason for lack of safety than DON'T LAUNCH! I want the Space Missions to continue too, but a safety back-up system SHOULD be in PLACE. I realize that there was no turning back or any way to fix the damage. We have a Billion Dollar Space Station sitting out there. There should be a way that it could be used in situations like this. The Astronauts could suit up and enter a safe haven, until another Shuttle arrives. It's easy to talk brave. But how brave would you be.... knowing that your going to die a most horrendous death? I don't believe any of the Astronauts would have went, if they knew it was a one way trip. They were not going to save the Earth, from a disastrous Asteroid, like in the movies. They were just doing experiments. Yes!!! NASA needs more money and should have it, in order to ensure the safety of our Finest. But until they get the funds.... STOP.... the needless bloodshed. It can be made safer.

1) Any tile lost needs to be replaced specifically, you can't just stick in any tile but an exact tile....they don't have enough room for 25,000 tiles. It's a bad system, but it's what they got.

So that rules out repairs on its own before comming in.

2) This mission they had no EVA equipment and the people up there had no training in it, the most experienced Astronaut up there only went on 1 previous flight and they were the pilots, never do they step out of the shuttle doors.

3) They didn't have proper docking modules to dock with the ISS even if they could (I keep hearing it's too heavy to) not to mention the fact they had a space lab in there, preventing ANYTHING docking with it.

4) Because of the space lab I'm not so sure they could even have exited the vehicle if they even had an EVA suit.

5) We could have had them wait for another shuttle possibly, why they had to come down right at that specific moment might not have had to happen. However a shuttle does take 3 days to wheel out there, so how much drink and food did they have left anyways?

NASA made a perfectly reasonable choice in bringing them in, just as with Apollo 12 when they decided that they'd let them go to the Moon.

Apollo 12 was struck by 2 bolts of lightning, they weren't so sure that the Parachute pyros weren't fired by the lightning, but they all agreed, "If those pyros are gone their dead now or when they come back from the moon, might as well send them."

We really aren't ready to start space rescues William you should know that...it's no different now really than it was with Apollo 13, if something goes wrong they're pretty much on their own.

I suppose you could push it with Soyuz and Shuttles but, final conclusion is if you have to abandon a Shuttle up there, it might as well burn up on its way in, there really isn't an effective way to replace a completely missing tile. And you say there is some sorta repair kit? For what? You can't fit a square into a circle.

Sincerely,
no signature

Mountain Star you obviously COMPLETELY missed the point of saying "Boy what I wouldn't give to be an Astronaut, Even if the Shuttles blew up every other time".

Originally Posted by Mountain Star
But how brave would you be.... knowing that your going to die a most horrendous death?

I'd still go, unless I had a wife I'm the guy you'd find behind the enemy lines, in the metal cofins and on the shuttles (shame WW3 hasn't come by yet, when I was younger I was so ready to be the first in last out ) It's easy for people to say someone else is a coward, but much harder to when you meet that someone and actually get to know them.

I litterally mean my above quoted statement.

Now going if you KNEW it was a one way trip, I think ANYONE not suicidal would stay back, but if it blew up 1 out of 2 times, but sparadically and randomly, like 3 blow ups here, 4 successes there, I'd take the chance, just as our boys did in the purple heart boxes against Rommels Tanks.

We can't stop, funds or no funds, we will only cross the void with the bold, and if congress won't buy us a shiny new porche, we'll just have to go in a beat-up rusty pinto.

I understand like anyone else, the wish to make it as safe as possible, but we need to do this whether it's safe or not.

Sincerely,
no signature


[Edited on 4-2-2003 by FreeMason]

i want to be an astronaut more that anything. i know its dangerous but every thing is dangerous if ya look at it. all crews of launches keep in the back of their minds that they might not come back.