Author Topic: Hail Columbia  (Read 11340 times)

Offline Colds7ream

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Hail Columbia
« on: 01/31/2008 06:10 pm »
Five years since Columbia lost her battle to bring her crew home safely - can't believe its been so long... Tomorrow's the anniversary of the shattered end of STS-107, and I'd like to point out that those brave seven will always be in our memories. As Bob Crippen said,

Hail Rick, Willie, KC, Mike, Laurel, Dave and Ilan. Hail Columbia.

Offline DaveS

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #1 on: 02/01/2008 10:13 am »
Yes. There will be a 5th anniversary ceremony from KSC on NASA TV at 10 am EST.
"For Sardines, space is no problem!"
-1996 Astronaut class slogan

"We're rolling in the wrong direction but for the right reasons"
-USA engineer about the rollback of Discovery prior to the STS-114 Return To Flight mission

Offline Mark Dave

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #2 on: 02/01/2008 11:04 am »
Yep.  I find it amazing that it has been that long.

I also pay close attention to dates like this, and infact next year will be exactly the day five years ago it happenned, Saturday Feb 1, 2009- Saturday Feb 1, 2003. Creepy IMO.

Offline Felix

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #3 on: 02/01/2008 12:59 pm »
Hail Columbia!

Offline Felix

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #4 on: 02/01/2008 01:33 pm »

Offline Felix

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #5 on: 02/01/2008 02:11 pm »
5th anniversary ceremony from KSC

Offline kimmern123

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #6 on: 02/01/2008 02:20 pm »
Quote
MarkD - 1/2/2008  1:04 PM

Yep.  I find it amazing that it has been that long.

I also pay close attention to dates like this, and infact next year will be exactly the day five years ago it happenned, Saturday Feb 1, 2009- Saturday Feb 1, 2003. Creepy IMO.

Today is the 5th anniversary of the Columbia-accident, not Feb 1. next year.

The ceremony so far has been very honorable, and Evelyn Husband-Thompson is a wonderful speaker.

Hail Columbia!

Offline Felix

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #7 on: 02/01/2008 02:26 pm »

Offline Felix

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #8 on: 02/01/2008 02:58 pm »

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #9 on: 02/01/2008 03:48 pm »
Evelyn Husband's speech nearly had me in tears  Talking about going to the landing with their children and seeing the clock reach zero, knowing the crew and her husband were lost.

One of their children said "is Daddy ok?" :(

Offline Mark Dave

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #10 on: 02/01/2008 04:50 pm »
I know that Kimmern, I was just pointing out the similarity of the day the 6th anniversary falls on is the very same day the accident happenned. It's an odd quirk I do when remembering important historic dates.

I, as many of you, remember exactly  where you were and what you were doing 5 years ago on this date.  I remember waking up to watch the landing to the horrifying news of the accident.

Offline Trajan

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A Sad Anniversary - Columbia is lost
« Reply #11 on: 02/01/2008 04:57 pm »
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-107/sts-107-patch-small.gif

Columbia and her crew was lost over the brilliant skies of the American southwest that crisp morning 5 years ago now .... For those who have spent time on Columbia, it was a mighty punch to the gut, and just days after the anniversary of the loss of OV-099, it was hard to believe at first.

It was hard to believe when the media outlets reported that Columbia was 'late' ... But how can a Space Shuttle be 'late' for a landing ? Immediately thoughts flood the mind: Imagery of a hypersonic vehicle in de-orbit, changing course somehow, and landing safely in some, yet unknown locale ??? .... Highly unlikely ...

We hoped for the best, but after viewing the first images of separated objects, glowing white hot and actively disintegrating before our eyes, moving as one body through the bright skies of Texas .... All hope was lost ...

I didn't need to be told what happened ... it was immediately clear that Columbia did not survive re-entry, and had broken up ... most likely due to being placed into an incorrect attitude for re-entry. It could have been any one of many reasons why such a thing could happen - I did, in my mind that morning, picture an opening in a wing surface where hot plasma infiltrated the substructure, which plasticized and bent backwards from the pressure. I also thought of an errant burst from an RCS nozzle, suddenly forcing the ship to lurch sideways - only for a second, but enough to sizzle the white TPS tiles headlong into the angle of flight .... (I am a 'Sparky', so my aerodynamic knowledge is limited)

In any case: Suddenly: Another space vehicle was in charred pieces, another Seven souls were released into the great ether ... and America had to again ask itself 'What went wrong?' ...

I felt the same sadness I had felt in 1986, on a similarly crisp, invigorating morning ....

Another punch in the gut ....

Farewell OV102, and farewell to the Seven ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Crew_of_STS-107%2C_official_photo.jpg

(I came to find this forum when I sought out information about Challenger on the 22nd anniversary of it's last flight ... This is my first thread, so I hope I don't mess it up ... I obviously do not understand how to place inline, embedded images - I'll simply leave the links as is)

Offline kimmern123

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #12 on: 02/01/2008 05:45 pm »
Quote
MarkD - 1/2/2008  6:50 PM

I know that Kimmern, I was just pointing out the similarity of the day the 6th anniversary falls on is the very same day the accident happenned. It's an odd quirk I do when remembering important historic dates.

I, as many of you, remember exactly  where you were and what you were doing 5 years ago on this date.  I remember waking up to watch the landing to the horrifying news of the accident.

Yes, that day is one I'll never forget. I can remember watching a skiing competition on TV and then seeing the announcement roll across the screen that Columbia was lost. I turned on CNN and just sat there for the rest of the day. My 12th birthday was just days prior to this.

 I think I just misunderstood your post earlier as it said it was 5 years ago next year, but anyway it's not important. What's important is that we remember the STS-107 crew and their sacrifice and remember what went wrong so we'll never do the same mistake again. Hearing Mrs. Husband-Thompson talking about going out to the landing site was very emotional. I remember seeing a picture of them with a countdown clock in the background. It was Landing- 11 minutes. Seeing how they smiled and all was very sad, considering that at that moment, Col. Husband was already gone.

Offline Rusty_Barton

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #13 on: 02/01/2008 07:32 pm »
I sadly remember all three of Americas manned spacecraft accidents. I was a teenager when I remember news reports on the evening of January 27, 1967 about the Apollo fire and loss of the crew.

On January 28, 1986 my wife and I had obtained tickets for one of San Francisco's morning television shows. We were in the audience waiting room at KGO-TV 7 in San Francisco, waiting to be taken into the television studio to watch the live broadcast of Good Morning San Francisco. TV sets in the waiting room were tuned to ABC's Good Morning America. Newsman Steve Bell came on to announce the Challenger launch. We all watched the Challenger disappear in that large vapor cloud and the two solid rocket boosters emerge, separately. The San Francisco morning show never went on the air at 9am. For the remainder of the day television carried reports of the Challenger accident.

On February 1, 2003 I listened and watched television as the Columbia started its reentry. 15-minutes from landing all contact was lost.

Today I'm remembering all of those that gave their lives to explore the New Frontier.

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #14 on: 02/01/2008 08:49 pm »
Did someone tape the video and can post it on here?  Someone like John 44?

Offline bkellysky

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #15 on: 02/01/2008 09:06 pm »
Sadly, I did not know of any of these three events in real time.  
In 1967, I think I found out about the Apollo 204 fire on the next morning's news or from a newspaper.  I was only 10 years old and I do remember asking our parish priest to pray for their souls.  And then reading every article I could find.
For Challenger, I was cleaning up our old apartment.   I had only one day to fix everything and didn't want to get charged for any damage.  I left my radio at the new house so I wouldn't get distracted, like I always did during a mission.   I arrived at home that night and my wife told me about the disaster.  I sat on the floor and cried, watching the replays on the evening news.
For Columbia, I kept telling everyone about the great science they were doing onboard on a mission that gained little general attention.  That weekend, I was serving on a Civil Air Patrol outdoor training weekend in New York.   I was so engrossed in it that I didn't have time to follow the landing.  The Commander told me that Columbia had crashed on landing and no one survived.  I wondered if they had missed the final approach.  I pulled out my AM radio I carried everywhere since 9/11 and tried to piece together what happened from news people who were trying to piece together what happened.  
Perhaps I was fortunate to avoid  the immediate impact of these event as they were happening.  It's even stranger to only live these events on slow-motion replay.
Thank you for your stories of how it felt to experience these terrible, sad moments.
And thanks to Machin on another thread for the "Home is Wherever You Are" poem.

Offline nathan.moeller

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #16 on: 02/01/2008 10:12 pm »
I remember February 1, 2003 as if it was yesterday.  I was fifteen years old and eating breakfast in my kitchen when the accident happened.  When I walked passed my brother's room he called me in, saying there was something about the space shuttle on the news.  After only a glance at the TV and seeing the trail, I thought 'Oh cool they're coming home.'  But then I read the news caption (it was ABC news, by the way) - 'Shuttle Landing Overdue'

At that point, I knew something was wrong.  I had never followed the program closely and didn't even know the mission was taking place, but I sure knew that the landings are timed very precisely, and that if there was time for the news to say something was up, something was very, very wrong.  I actually didn't do anything else that day.  I just sat around watching the news.  Very sad day.
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Offline dember

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Re: Hail Columbia
« Reply #17 on: 02/01/2008 11:59 pm »
Hail Columbia. We miss you.

Offline Felix

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Offline Ford Mustang

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RE: Hail Columbia
« Reply #19 on: 02/02/2008 03:34 am »

Some pictures of today's event are now in the KSC Hot Pics gallery, located here.


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