[B5JMS] Attn JMS: Shuttle Columbia Breaks Over Central Texas

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: "Eliyahu" <lrooff at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 00:04:23 -0800
Lines: 17


"CaptJosh" <captjosh at phantos.subspacelink.com> wrote in message
news:b1ie7i$13557p$1 at ID-107133.news.dfncis.de...

> However, I don't see why they couldn't have possibly gone to Space Station
> Alpha and had them look.

In a single word: fuel. We don't see the ships on B5 dealing with fuel
issues, and tend to forget that the real ones currently have only a limited
fuel supply and don't have access to any more until they reach the ground.
Going to a different orbit at a different altitude could have needed more
fuel than the shuttle was capable of carrying.

Eliyahu




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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 02 Feb 2003 09:21:31 GMT
Lines: 26

It is a terrible, terrible tragedy.  I've been locked in my office writing all
day, and din't hear about this until late.

We become so used to the sight of astronauts climbing skyward on the shuttle
and drifting back to earth that we forget the dangers involved, that these
people are riding controlled explosions going up, and blasting back at mach six
with little or no fuel coming back, using technology that is nearly twenty
years old, and ships that have taken multiple beatings on lift-off and re-entry
for all of those years.

If the government really wants to show respect for the lives lost, they should
inject some of the money otherwise being spent on bombs into creating and
repairing and refurbishing the remaining shuttles, or otherwise paying more
than lip service to the space program that has given so much, and so many
lives, in return for so precious little funding from Washington.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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