Space Shuttle Columbia Lost over the Skies in Central TX

[AlphaSigOU]

Reports from law enforcement personnel in Nacogdoches (nack-o-doches), Texas say pieces of the orbiter have landed in the area. Police and fire crews are securing sites at this time.

All NASA facilities are in lockdown, flags are at half-staff. More info as it becomes available.

[AlphaSigOU]

An ongoing journal of the contingency is available at www.flatoday.com (Florida Today in Cocoa Beach, Florida is probably the best local newspaper covering space events.)

[Munchkin03]

I just woke up to the news. I can remember being home from first grade the day Challenger exploded, and seeing that on TV. It just seems unreal.

[Kevin]

Very tragic. Local weather stations are showing the debris cloud on their radars.

[Kevin]

Anyone know what they're saying about the potential toxicity of the debris is true? Or is it just a lie to keep people from taking home souvenirs?

[aephi alum]

I just learned about this... The astronauts and their families are in my thoughts and prayers.

[KillarneyRose]

I am too sad for words; what a horrible tragedy. My prayers are with the families.

[PenguinTrax]

Originally posted by ktsnake
Anyone know what they're saying about the potential toxicity of the debris is true? Or is it just a lie to keep people from taking home souvenirs?

No, this is quite true, between the fuel components and other materials used in the construction, contact with the chemicals/materials involved can be dangerous.

I used to work for the company that made/invented the material used to make the black heatproof tiles on the bottom of the shuttles.

[AlphaSigOU]

Originally posted by ktsnake
Anyone know what they're saying about the potential toxicity of the debris is true? Or is it just a lie to keep people from taking home souvenirs?

It is true. The reaction control system and the Orbiting Maneuvering System pods which control the attitude of the orbiter use highly toxic, corrosive and hypergolic (burn on contact) fuels and oxidizers. The fuel is monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) and the oxidizer is nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4).

N204 is highly corrosive and toxic. When mixed with water, it turns into red-fuming nitric acid. MMH turns into a gas above 60 degrees Fahrenheit and is combustible. Whenever MMH and N2O4 are combined, they become hypergolic, or literally explode on contact with each other.

An accident at a Titan II ICBM complex (374-7, near Damascus, Arkansas) in 1980 was caused by a dropped socket wrench that struck the first stage fuel tank of a Titan II missile. While it did not immediately explode, as the fuel tank's contents emptied it's highly probable that the tank collapsed, causing the explosion. (Titan used Aerozine-50, which is similar to MMH, for its fuel).

The resulting explosion in the silo threw the 700-ton silo closure door several hundred yards away. The W-53 9-megaton thermonuclear warhead was recovered intact not far from the silo. Because of the many safety and security measures taken in the storage and arming of nuclear weapons, the warhead did not explode, nor were there any indications of radiation on the site.

Shortly after this accident, which killed one and injured many others, the 52 missile Titan II ICBM force was deactivated. The launchers have been converted into satellite boosters and the nuclear warheads placed in storage and apparently dismantled. The empty silos were blown up in place to comply with the START nuclear arms reduction treaty. Only one silo remains intact, this is 571-7 in Green Valley, Arizona, which is now the Titan Missile Museum Natonal Historic Landmark. In order for the site and missile not to be counted under START, the silor closure door has been permanently fixed to the half-open position and the missile in the silo (a ground training missile) has had holes opened in the fuel and oxidizer tanks and the reentry vehicle assembly. They were left out in the open for 90 days to allow for Russian spy satellites to verify that the missile was deactivated.

[SATX*APhi]

I am very sad and will keep everybody involved in my thoughts and prayers.

[AlphaSigOU]

Reports coming in from East Texas say that debris from the orbiter as they are found are being mapped with GPS. This may help in the investigation of the orbiter's breakup.

[astroAPhi]

I found out from my big sis this morning. She's a structural engineer at United Space Alliance on the Cape, and she actually tests the structural integrity of the orbiter. She is an absolute wreck. She was crying and talking about how she feels personally responsible even though Columbia isn't her bird (Endeavour actually is, in case anyone cared to know).

I'm still fairly new here, so a lot of you probably don't know a lot about me, but I'm an aerospace engineering major at Florida Tech, about 40 miles south of the Cape. AEs around here often switch to other majors, and someone asked me today if I was going to now since I had commented that grad school was starting to look more likely than getting a job. I just hope that the space program is still up and running when I graduate and for a long time afterward, because exploration is too important to give up just because an accident happens. We need to investigate the problems and make the shuttles, etc. safer for the men and women who fly on them.

Thank you to whoever pulled out the Gus Grissom quote. These men and women understood the risks, and accepted them. And in return, we will not forget them.

[AlphaSigOU]

Originally posted by astroAPhi
...Thank you to whoever pulled out the Gus Grissom quote. These men and women understood the risks, and accepted them. And in return, we will not forget them.

You're quite welcome. I've been an avid follower of space and aviation ever since I was very young. Way too young to remember Apollo 1 (I was only 2 at the time), but do remember the last flight of OV-099 (Challenger)as if it were yesterday.

Today was Bid Day at A&M, and whatever great feelings we had about the end of a successful rush were immediately tempered by the somber news we all recieved today.

I've got numerous brothers from East Texas, all of whom called home after hearing the news, some of their families have experienced the falling debris.

For the Aggies out there, y'all will understand when i respond with the following...

HERE.

Kitso
KS 361

[lifesaver]

I got a voice mail from my sister who lives in Houston. She is a speech thearpist at a school district there. She was going into work this am to help with soem adittional testing backlog that needed to be taken care of. She was on her way to work and saw what she thought was a metorite or space junk streaking across the sky. She didnt think it was the shuttle for several reasons; 1) She didnt know it was up. 2) We see the shuttle reenterign the earths atmosphere over texas a few times a year. You can see it almost anywhere in texas. At 300,000 to 200,000 ft in altitude its visible to most parts of Texas if the sky conditions are right. The meterologists on tv will often tell us when and where to look if we want to see it. So weve seen it several tiems before now. She said this didnt look anything like the other reentries. This one was different, with a wide smoke plume and "sparkely things" coming off it, leaving its own contrails. Thats why she didnt think it was the shuttle. Wild.

I absolutely hate days like this. Its one of those days of national tragedy that you will remember EXACTLY what you were doing and where you were when you heard the news for the rest of your life. I remember where I was and what I was doing when the Challenger exploded, When the Murrah bldg was bombed in 95, and when the WTC was bombed in 93 and of course the attacks of 911. Man I hate days like this. I feel bad for the families, but also for the people who work on the shuttle program. THe pride and effort those people put into it is amazing and to be at home thinking, "Did I cause this? Am I responsibe for the death of these 7 astronauts? Did I check and double check everyhting? Is there anything adittional I could have done? Should I have gone back and checked x, y, or z a fourth time, a fifth?" Damyn.

Also they are way serious about the pieces of the orbiter. Not only are the pieces potentially very dangerous as has been described above, but I am sure EVERYTHING is absolutely necessary to reconstuct the orbiter for failure analysys. I know they are serious because I have weatherbug on my computer here at work. It displays the temp down in the system tray and flashes if there is a storm warning or flood warning or something. Well I was working this early afternoon, and it starts flashing, meaning an alert is up for my area. I click on it and the following pops up:

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
CIVIL EMERGENCY MESSAGE
TEXAS DIVISION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AUSTIN TX
RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX
107 PM CST SAT FEB 1 2003

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE TEXAS
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY.

...SPACE SHUTTLE DEBRIS...

CITIZENS SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM SPACE SHUTTLE DEBRIS AND REPORT
LOCATION OF DEBRIS TO LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
AGAIN...CITIZENS SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM SPACE SHUTTLE DEBRIS.

SO I guess that means they are serious.

I pray for the space shuttle crew's family. I cant imagine havign to experience a private tragedy so publically.