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Columbia has exploded killing all onboard.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/0 ... index.html

Sad.

Just our fucking luck.

This is terrible! So sad...
Sorry to loose so many brilliant minds and sorry for their families as well…

sigh... my deepest sympathies for those astronauts, their families and fellow countrymen.

Terribe news. With so much strife in the world, the space effort is something that involves many nations in peaceful endeavour. Now tragedy here as well.

Terrible, awful, deeply sad

The shuttle technology was developed in the 70's. They ought to can all the shuttles and design a new space plane, one that launches without the aid of a giant fuel tank that falls into the sea.

Does anyone have a link to an audio file of President Bush's speech ? (A non-Realplayer link...)

EDIT: installed Realplayer (yuk) and got a good download rom the White House site. Am puting together a tribute for my work


Columbia

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: spirit on 2003-02-01 22:06 ]</font>

OK, here's my little tribute (1.2Mb streaming)

http://www.hq13.com/terra/audio.htm

Terrible, that´s reminds me on the Challanger
disaster 17 years ago. Unbelieveable, 7 people done a dangerous job for humankind in space , they felt happy to come back to their families and back home. There is a kind of escape pod, the cockpit cell. The cell detached from the main unit and fall with x sonic speed on the ground/sea. What a terrible moment this must be ?
You have the death in your eyes and can´t do anything against it.

I feel very sad.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ChrisWerner on 2003-02-02 12:36 ]</font>

well,what do they expect?they spend how much on what and don't have any money for outdated worn-out spaceships?not surprising as there is no great love for humans.the money is spent on things to kill humans instead of things to make human life nice.

nasa has long been crying that the shuttle is old and unsafe.no point crying when there was never a serious attempt to keep them alive.

it's a terrible death,but it's grand in the truest romantic tradition.(bush sez they are starz in the sky for real now.......)

in spite of the tragedy,there is considerably more human suffering in the world NOW that merits more attention.....

there. i made the face for y'all about my own post.sorry for venting and spoiling the mood.carry on.

I don't think there is a single experiment that could not have been done by robots. I fail to see why we must continue to spend countless billions on space when unmaned missions would be sooo much cheaper. NASA wants mainly manned missions and I think I know why. It simply is because they want to impress us. It's more interesting to see people floating around up there. They can play games (at the tax payers expence) and make conference calls with school children. The pretence is that they are up there for science but the reality is they are partly up there to show off and that is not mature IMHO.

I just heard the pope said a prayer for all the crew. That's pretty funny considering one of them was jewish. Thanks but no thanks!

Putting humans in space is difficult, expensive and dangerous, but I think it's part of the human experience, you carry with you the wonder and exhileration that no robot can give you.

For me space is not about just getting the cheapest science option, it also has a purely emtional element. It's a unifying force, something which is usually *good news* for the world instead of war and hate and strife.

During the cold war it was only in space that the US and Soviets actively co-operated, like the joint 1975 mission. You could even theorise that competition in space is a useful "safety valve" to release the tensions of national rivalry in a non-warlike way.

Of course there are "national prestige" elements in this - just like in sport or earth-based science. Those motivations made sure the money was available for the early space programs, but certainly most of the people involved were idealists. It's very inspiring to read the books of many of these space and ground-based pioneers.

And it's prestige that appears to be motivating China to plan it's first manned launch in October this year. Even India has been considering a manned program...

But in the end, for me, it's one of the things which makes me proud to be human, and which *all* people in the world can rightly share.

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"The Columbia is lost"

On 2003-02-02 19:11, braincell wrote:
I just heard the pope said a prayer for all the crew. That's pretty funny considering one of them was jewish. Thanks but no thanks!

Funny? It just shows in situations like this people unite, no matter their religion is. Can you imagine the Pope praying for the crew with one member exclusive because he's Jewish??? At least we have the same god but think of Him different way.

On 2003-02-03 03:20, samplaire wrote:

On 2003-02-02 19:11, braincell wrote:
I just heard the pope said a prayer for all the crew. That's pretty funny considering one of them was jewish. Thanks but no thanks!

Funny? It just shows in situations like this people unite, no matter their religion is. Can you imagine the Pope praying for the crew with one member exclusive because he's Jewish??? At least we have the same god but think of Him different way.

I guess I am a little sensitive about it after the president's comments about the crew "going home" I seem to remember a similar christian quote about going home to jesus only the president isn't allowed to say jesus so he has to elude to jesus which for me is just as bad. All this talk about the axis of evil makes it seem like he is not really living in the real world. People can be bad but a whole nation with millions of people surely can not be condemned as "evil". For me as an atheist there is no such thing as evil. I guess you could think of it as a metaphor for bad people but it seems like he really is in a fantasy world.

On 2003-02-02 22:42, Spirit wrote:
Putting humans in space is difficult, expensive and dangerous, but I think it's part of the human experience, you carry with you the wonder and exhileration that no robot can give you.

For me space is not about just getting the cheapest science option, it also has a purely emtional element. It's a unifying force, something which is usually *good news* for the world instead of war and hate and strife.

--------------
"The Columbia is lost"

I got a lot more enjoyment out the hubble than I ever will from seeing human beings floating in a tin can. If you want to get into space here is a hint:

Be in charge of NASA's appropriations. It worked for John Glen. He had the right stuff alright... NASA's purse strings!

He had to find the effects of space on old people, yeah right.

Hey I have an idea let's mate some people in space... no wait it might not be ethical but hehe sure would be fun with the lack of gravity, but seriously folks I can think of a lot cheaper ways to have "an emotional experience".