Space Shuttle burns up

[Warren]

[Paul]

[Warren]

[James S]

[Paul]

[James S]

[Mechcommander]

I woke up late this morning, and the whole family was huddled in front of the TV. I came down and got some juice, asked (While pouring the juice, bad mistake) "Why's everyone in front of the TV?"
Dad- "Comlubia blew up."
At this point, the juice decided to make a run for it and decdided to spill all over the floor.
So I hurrindly cleaned up the juice, and went over to watch with em. They were showing the crash and talking about about it for quite a while. And yes, travelling at Mach 17 with a piece of insulation hitting the wing would tear it off, then resulting in the cataclysmic destruction of the whole vehicle. The question is now, how are we going to get the astronaughts off of the ISS? Is the ISS going to be put in stasis? Cause last time, with Challenger, it took nearly two years to get the space program running again. Now, if I remember correctly, Russia's space program was shut down (Advised by *us* nonetheless) And cannot launch anymore. I'm really worried about the people up there. What really grieves me is that Isreal's first pilot was up in that shuttle... Yeesh.
Golly, you'd think the NASA engineers would actually learn that anything that could go wrong (even with a loose piece of insulation) will.
To sum it up: This forking sucks.

[Warren]

Mechcommander, I think you're putting way too much blame on the engineers and NASA, I mean, the Space Shuttle is the MOST complex machine made by man (watch the Top 10 Ultimate Machines on Discovery Channel). Don't you think that missing a piece of insulation is pretty small compared to the infinite number of things that can go wrong? And that insulation may not (and I highly doubt it is) the reason for the explosion. First of all, even if it was moving at mach 17, isn't the Space Shuttle too? It fell off during launch, so it didn't smash into the Shuttle that hard if it hit it. We'll just have to wait for the investigation.

As for the space program, I don't know, but I don't think this will be much of a hinderance. There's another Mars rover program scheduled for May, that should still go on. And what are you talking about Russia not doing their space program?! Only a few weeks ago, they sent up a new telescope that will be looking at the origin of the universe! It will be operating in 2004. Russia does tons of space stuff, probably about the same as the US.

And I wouldn't worry at all about the guys on the ISS right now, they'll come back safely. They're not going to be left there! LOL. Don't talk like Space Shuttles blow up all the time...they don't, this is the 2nd accident, out of HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of flights. If I had the oppurtunity, I'd go on a Space Shuttle tomorrow.

[Guest]

Yeah.. this sucks a lot.. Man.. I saw it on the internet and rushed to the TV to get more info..
I don´t think they are going to stop the space program though. There´s a lot of money involved (ISS) and stopping it could bring some serious financial problems to Nasa.. Not that money is really something to care about at this right momment...

Lets wait to see what happens

[Diego Cueva]

woops.. it was me on the last post. Damn stupid cookies.. meh

[David Horn]

[Digital Chaos]

[It's Me]

[Mechcommander]

[James S]