RE: [twuug] Space Shuttle Columbia blows up on reentry!

["Adam Crosby" <acrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Apparently, the crew ejection system is a hatch on the side of the Shuttle -
they hook onto a pole, and slide out - triggering their parachutes.
At Mach18 (it's speed at the moment of lost contact), I don't think there is
a parachute material available that could survive, let alone the humans
attached.  The heat around the shuttle at that point of the deorbit burn
would instantly melt them.
I just hope this doesn't put as big a damper on the Space program as the
Challenger did - although I sadly suspect it will :(


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charles Shannon Hendrix [mailto:csh@spamcop.net]
> Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2003 12:13 PM
> To: twuug@twuug.org
> Subject: Re: [twuug] Space Shuttle Columbia blows up on reentry!
>
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On Saturday 01 February 2003 09:46 am, Jeff Self wrote:
> > turn on the news
>
> They said the shuttle was moving at 12000mph at 200K feet when it
> exploded.
>
> I was surprised to hear NASA say they have launched crew recovery
> procedures.  I would think at that kind of speed and altitude none of
> the safety systems worked.  Also, I thought the crew eject systems were
> all disabled now.
>
> Of course, I'd be thrilled to hear they did recover someone, but this is
> probably just a formality.
>
> This was NASA's oldest shuttle, on its 28th mission.
>
> Really bad news.
>


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