NASA Loses Contact With Shuttle Columbia

POSTED BY: NewsAdmin
UPDATED: Monday, August 17, 2026 04:38
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NEWSADMIN

Saturday, February 1, 2003 2:44 PM

News is coming out of Nasa that they lost contact with the Space Shuttle Columbia. The shuttle was supposed to land at 9:17am but there have been no contact since 9:00am.

Video suggests that something might have gone wrong during re-entry.

GATORMARC

Saturday, February 1, 2003 3:08 PM

RIP

SARAHETC

Saturday, February 1, 2003 3:24 PM

The really shitty thing is that this was the first science/education only mission since Challenger. It's just too eerie.

Anybody else desperately afraid for the space program?

bless all those poor people

Sarah

KAYTHRYN

Saturday, February 1, 2003 4:53 PM

Our thoughts and prayers must now be with the families of those who were involved in that horrific disaster.

SPACEMONKEY

Saturday, February 1, 2003 5:11 PM

What's going to happen to the space station now? they will ground the fleet until they cant fix the problem. last time that took 3 years!

russia cant keep it up, they can't even afford the 2 soyuz and 3 progress resupply as is. NO WAY they can pick up the slack for the shuttle. No other country has a way into space yet(china is close, but not a partner on the station)

BLAIDD

Saturday, February 1, 2003 7:55 PM

I too send my thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims.

I want you all to consider this for a second. With flagging support for the war on Iraq wouldn't it be simple to get our "dander" up so that we are angry at everyone by creating a tragedy?

It was proposed back in the 60's to get us to go to war with Cuba.

Check this out:
http://www.infowars.com/shuttle.htm

I feel that Firefly was ringing a little too true for the current movement of our governments and we may all find ourselves wishing we had a real life hero like the Captain of Firefly.

Be well,

Blaidd

THETRIPLEACE

Sunday, February 2, 2003 12:58 AM

best case senario:
USA sold shuttle tech to china (remember that so called mid air collision with that other plane? that landed in china? hmmmmm)
All those on board are probably chillin at some exotic island.

Dont think for a second the USA actualy is hostile against China. The cold war was a big hoax to create technoloy and boost economy.

Evolution By chaos.

GUAILO

Tuesday, February 4, 2003 2:07 AM

Nah...I think best case is that they determine in th enext few weeks that the bit of insulation that fell off during launch damaged the tile structure even a millimeter and that was enough for the shield to fail. After that, it's back in business.

What we'll have to go through is a bunch of trumped up scandal shit that "It was so-and-so's fault", pointing fingers at everyone and thier dog.

I'm no genius, but I know that space flight is two things: (A) Dangerous and (B) Necessary.

I feel terrible for the families and for all the people in Isreal and India that looked up to their national heroes and for all the family and neighbors of the other astronauts here in Houston. But it would be a disservice to take any longer than necesaary to get back up in the sky.

"...keep on flyin'..."

Mal: “The next time you decide to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face.”

HAKEN

Tuesday, February 4, 2003 2:18 AM

Finger pointing aside, what I would like to know is why there wasn't a visual inspection of the shuttle by the astronauts themselves while they were in space? It only makes sense to verify that the shuttle is physically ready for re-entry. Is a space walk around the shuttle that difficult of a task to perform?

SPENCER

Tuesday, February 4, 2003 2:31 AM

The slow motion film of the item coming off the tank,they are estimating to be about the size of a home refridgerator, can be clearly seen going in under the left wing.This is followed by a large white cloud of debries exiting out from under the rear of the left wing. This cloud is as wide as the wing, a tremendous impact to be sure. I find it hard to believe that NASA could have watched this and said dont worry there is no problem.

GUAILO

Tuesday, February 4, 2003 2:38 AM

Well, who says they did...besides them that is? My point in saying that is that when there's no way to save the crew and it's already too late to abort, they would likely choose to go on with the mission. That's my guess anyway - that a hard call was made and evaluation couldn't be made at the time of the insulation impact and the minutes afterward.

At what altitude did that occur, I wonder. Anyone see that yet?

Quote:
Finger pointing aside, what I would like to know is why there wasn't a visual inspection of the shuttle by the astronauts themselves while they were in space? It only makes sense to verify that the shuttle is physically ready for re-entry. Is a space walk around the shuttle that difficult of a task to perform?

According to astronauts interview around here (I live in Houston, so we have lots to draw on) report that a visual inspection might not have been done because it would have done nothing except confirm that there was damage or been inconclusive and in either case would have been pointelss. Two possibilities exist:

(A) There appears to be no damage but ther was. Ship breaks up anyway.

(B) The is damage. Such damage would be utterly irreparable in orbit.

There's also the possibility that there were no EVAs on board. If they don't have them included in the mision parameters they aren't on board for payload reasons. That's also why linking and evecuating to the Space Station was not an option - Columbia didn't have the docking ring needed to make the link. It wasn't part of the mission, so wasn't on board.

In any of the above instances the astronauts had no means of returning safely to earth and the oly recourse was to risk reentry and hope for the best; hope the tiles remained intact.

This is all supposition, except for th epayload stuff. That's via Sally Ride this morning on GMA and locally.

Mal: “The next time you decide to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face.”

JAYNEZTOWN

Monday, December 30, 2024 11:45 PM

21 years later

A Cold War mystery: Why did Jimmy Carter save the space shuttle?
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/a-cold-war-mystery-why-did-jimmy
-carter-save-the-space-shuttle/
Ars solves the mystery by going directly to a primary source—the president himself.

JAYNEZTOWN

Sunday, July 20, 2025 5:08 PM

Moving NASA HQ from DC to Space Coast still on lawmakers’ minds

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/07/13/moving-nasa-hq-from-dc-to-s
pace-coast-still-on-lawmakers-minds/

JAYNEZTOWN

Saturday, October 4, 2025 1:01 AM

owned by the American people by way of institute / agency, the Federal Government doesn’t even own it?

Texas Ted wants a Shuttle

White House told only way to move Space Shuttle Discovery is to chop it up

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/dismantling_discovery/

JAYNEZTOWN

Wednesday, November 5, 2025 1:55 PM

it will never be 'routine'

China's Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was hit by space debris
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/chinas-shenzhou-20-retu
rn-mission-delayed-due-space-debris-impact-2025-11-05/

JAYNEZTOWN

Saturday, March 28, 2026 6:25 PM

NASA begins contracting process to potentially relocate Space Shuttle Discovery to Houston

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/nasa/2026/03/20/54673
2/nasa-discovery-space-shuttle-houston-contract-bid-proposal/

NASA’s Proposed Post-ISS Pivot Leaves Partners ‘Concerned and Confused’

https://aviationweek.com/space/commercial-space/nasas-proposed-post-is
s-pivot-leaves-partners-concerned-confused

JAYNEZTOWN

Monday, August 17, 2026 4:34 AM

things are exploding...it has implications

USA NASA, Space-X, Russia and a bunch of international partners with the ISS

CyberBoroshno’s preliminary analysis says FP-5 Flamingo missiles likely struck Building 106A at RKC Progress in Samara, the only Russian facility serially assembling Soyuz-2 launch vehicles. The building reportedly handles onboard electrical systems, instruments, circuit boards, control systems and cabling. Building 106B, used for final assembly, is located nearby. The full scale of damage is still being assessed through satellite imagery
https://x.com/NOELreports/status/2088525434816201041

JAYNEZTOWN

Monday, August 17, 2026 4:38 AM

Astronauts Marooned On Moon Could Be Abandoned Under Current NASA Plan
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinholdenplatt/2026/07/19/astronauts-ma
rooned-on-moon-could-be-abandoned-under-current-nasa-plan/

The 8 American Astronauts Who Died Before Apollo 11