|
|
the-south-asian.com March 2003 |
||||
|
MARCH
2003 Murphy's
Law &
Films Serialisation
of 'Knock at every alien Events
Lehngas - a limited collection Books
|
|
||||
|
'Envoys to the unknown'
On 1 February 2003, minutes before its scheduled landing, Columbia lost contact with Earth and the seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle – Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Ilan Ramon, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and Laurel Clark - never came home. They had been in space for 16 days, covered 6 million miles, and conducted scientific experiments. Vice President Dick Cheney mourned the Columbia astronauts as "envoys to the unknown" - seven lost explorers of different faiths and backgrounds who were "bound together in the great cause of discovery." The shuttle broke up over the United States, scattering its remains over several states. On 27 February ABC News Online reported that amongst the wreckage, NASA had found a video made by the seven astronauts on the shuttle Columbia shortly before it broke up on 1 February. These are probably the last images of the four astronauts on the upper deck, as they prepare to land, unaware of the impending disaster. "The video ends just before NASA lost contact with the shuttle which disintegrated as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on February 1. It shows the crew as they prepared for the spacecraft's return to Earth.. According to a spokesman at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas "The tape shows 13 minutes of crew activities before the accident." "The partially-damaged tape shows four crew "doing normal activities" on the flight deck, some 25 minutes ahead of the scheduled landing, about 10 minutes before the shuttle broke up." According to The Sydney Morning Herald, "Commander Rick Husband, co-pilot William McCool, flight engineer Kalpana Chawla, India's first woman astronaut, and Laurel Clark were on the flight deck and reportedly caught on camera.The three other astronauts were on the lower deck.The camera was mounted on the wall and moved by one of the crew; their voices can be heard clearly". .Lloyd J. Dumas writes on the vulnerability of complex technologies and inevitable failures that can occur – such as the Columbia Disaster.
Columbia Disaster
|
|||||
| Copyright © 2000 - 2003 [the-south-asian.com]. Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. | |||||
| Home | |||||
