Re: [OT] Columbia

On Sun, 2 Feb 2003 17:20:44 -0500, "Thomas Barclay" <kaladorn@magma.ca>
wrote:

>I watched it on TV within moments of the 
>happening.

For me it was several hours. I turned on the TV at around noon to the
weather
channel. It was there that I got a first inkling of what happened, and
that
was only a brief mention in close captioning as I had the sound off. I
swapped
over to CNN and saw the coverage. I was stunned.

> I know much time and analysis has 
>passed since then (I had a lot of company this 
>weekend), but what struck me the most was 
>two things: How inane radio and television 
>commentators and analysts can be

This is a function of the number of cable news networks. Instead of
cutting to
something else when there is nothing new, they have to fill the time.
They do
this with speculation, as they are scared of saying, "Nothing new" and
having
the channel surfer shift channels.

I noticed this effect a lot this year. Remember the aircraft that
crashed into
the hangar in Charlotte last month? The CNN reporters were suggesting
that
casualties on the ground could be high because the plane crashed just
before
9, a time when people typically go to work. I was shaking my head and
yelling
at the TV. It was a hangar, and so there is no reason to believe that
maintenance workers work 9 to 5. As it turned out, no one was on the
ground in
that area.

I hate when they speculate. I don't so much mind the questions they
pose, such
as "What would the rescue scenario be?" as that's a question the
layperson
asks. Believe me, the average layperson knows very little about the
space
programme. I know this from a trip to Kennedy Space Center in 1991,
where I
heard incredibly uninformed and inane questions from the people there
(though
they were, of course, there to _learn_ something, which was a good
thing). As
far as people know, the shuttle has ejector seats and parachutes. They
don't
understand the physics of travelling in an atmosphere at Mach 18.

What bugged me was the so-called knowledge the talking heads impart.
When
asked about how long the shuttles would be grounded, Miles O'Brien said
it
would be "at least as long as after the Challenger disaster" (2.5
years). I
said, out loud, "The hell it will be! They have people in a space
station to
deal with!" In the end, it appears 5 months is more realistic, and that
they
are hoping to use a shuttle to replace the space station crew before
their
supplies run out in June.

A positive, of course, is seeing the Russian Progress rocket launch.
Hopefully
docking with the station will be good. This is the reason for having an
international space programme: no single point of failure. I hope if the
Chinese succeed in putting up a human, which they suggest will happen
soon,
that they will be involved, eventually. The more redundancy, the better.

>R.I.P. STS-107. God Bless Your Families and 
>Friends. 

I wish I knew if there was a way to send condolences to the families...

The disaster has hit this area of the US pretty bad. There are NASA
facilities
in Houston and just outside New Orleans. I'm in northeast Louisiana, in
Monroe. A former astronaut, and now manager, comes from West Monroe. The
shuttle can regularly be seen from this area when it is returning to
Florida.
The shuttle break up was seen as close as Ruston, some 20 or 30 miles
west of
here. Debris has been reported in this Parish (Louisiana has parishes
instead
of counties), or less than 10 miles from here. Ouachita (wash-i-tah)
Parish is
between 2 and 3 hours from Sabine County in Texas where much of the
debris has
fallen. There is debris, apparently, in Lake Charles (a town, not a
lake)
Louisiana, which is about 4 hours south of here. That means a debris
field
about 180 miles wide at the widest point. This is a huge area to look
for
potentially tiny bits of evidence.

I find it heartening, though, that there is no cry for a stop to the
space
programme. The vast majority of e-mails in to CNN this morning have
called for
a continuance of the space programme. I think people are much more aware
of
the dangers of space travel, but also the potential benefits of it.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart