Prayers go out

[woody]

to the families and crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. It came apart upon reentry this morning over Texas.

[RichP]

Hopefully some good will come out of it and we will either build newer shuttles to replace our aging fleet or perhaps this will result in the air force finally admitting they possibly have a working spaceplane. It was a horrible thing to have happen.

RichP

[Eagle]

As of 22:30 Sunday evening, the latest indications are that the debris that broke loose from one of the fuel tanks during launch "may have caused more damage than initially assumed." However, the talking heads cheerfully went on to report that there was no way for the crew to have repaired the damage in space, so if that was the cause they were toast from the moment the debris hit the wing.

I am disgusted at NASA. What is it with these people? They've had tiles break off before, and they know how important they are. It seems to me that sending a shuttle up without some kind of tile repair kit is like wheeling without a spare tire -- with the consequences multiplied by a factor of infinity!

I hope the lead mission controller who decided the damage was inconsequential is proud of himself right now.

[Bob 94 XJ]

Amen to that Eagle. It seems like it doesn't phase them that seven people were killed because of it..

[OverlandXJ]

My prayers go out to the crewmembers,their family's and all those assosciated with the space administration. Terrible thing to have happen..