6:42 AM


BREAKING NEWS:
The shuttle has exploded over Texas.

Damn damn damn damn damn.

Links:

• NASA's page for the mission is here.
  
• Metafilter comment thread, providing reactions and some background information among the static as it grows.
  
• NASA's latest events list. It's info light right now--we'll see if it gets updated.
  
• WFAA, the Dallas/Fort Worth television station currently providing CNN with video.
  

(8:52 AM CST)
NASA TV is silent for the most part, and getting choppier as it gets hammered by more and more users. Impact zone of debris is now being reported as centered on Palestine, Texas.

(9:04 AM)
CNN is reporting that debris was seen breaking loose of the Shuttle on liftoff, possibly striking the left wing. Reporters had asked NASA techs about it earlier in the week, and their thinking was that it had been nothing critical. (UPDATE: It was foam insulation, according to this story.)

Planned landing was at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image of planned landing track from mission website that shows how it goes over what are now being called "impact zones".

(9:18 AM)
Texas citizens are being told to stay away from "potentially toxic" (due to propellant saturation) debris. Eyewitnesses calling in to CNN are promptly ignoring this advice, one man saying he's "going out" to find whatever it is that smells like burned rubber nearby. (I note that CNN has made no attempt to stop him.)

(9:37 AM)
CNN is into the 'recap the story so far stage' for a while. Bloggers are likely doing the same thing journalists are, poking into the corners and edges of the story. The MeFi comment thread notes (likely correctly) that a no-fly zone has probably been established around the region, so we won't see any aerial photography for quite a while. Maybe by late afternoon. (UPDATE: Already seeing some aerial photography of debris at 11:17 AM.)

Also, courtesy of MeFi user dhartung, a good summary of the situation vis a vis the ISS Expedition 6 crew:

"karl, the Station is currently manned by one Russian astronaut (Budarin) and two Americans (Pettit and Bowersox). They are scheduled to remain on board through March 1, when the Atlantis was to bring up the expedition 7 crew and an MPLM logistics module, as well as consumables such as fresh water and food; it is unlikely they will remain even that long, now, even if their supplies would have lasted. Because of NASA's concern for safety margins, they may be ordered home almost immediately, using the Soyuz crew return vehicle. The Soyuz was due to be swapped out in late April (they have a six-month on-orbit lifetime).

The ISS had just begun construction of the main truss, which will hold the major solar arrays and cooling systems, and its completion -- with as many as four flights by the end of year -- would have been the major task of 2003."

(9:45 AM)
Via ICQ, Bezzy asked about China's space program. Here's a BBC story on their plans.

Debris now reported on the ground in Nacogdoches.

(I don't know if anyone in the world is using my page as their portal to the story, but blogging seems to be helping me deal with the shock. Thanks to Scott and Kasab for calling to alert me to the story. I hope those whom I called to pass the news along weren't upset at the early morning call. To paraphrase Callahan, "Shared joy is increased, shared pain is diminished.")

(9:55 AM)
Press conference has been announced for 35 minutes from now. NASA has already lowered the flags at the countdown clocks in Florida and Texas to half-staff.

The President has left Camp David to return to the White House and plans to address the nation at some point later today.

The local connection to the story: Mission Specialist 4 Laurel Clark is from Racine and was a UW-Madison grad (BS Zoology '83). Several UW-Madison agriculture experiments were also on board.

CNN is showing footage from another of their affiliates--KOAT in New Mexico--tracking the Shuttle's reentry. Nothing immediately interesting in the footage, certainly not as dramatic as the Texas video.

(10:12 AM)
CNN is showing photos emailed in by viewers of debris on the ground (and, in a quick shot, what looked like a hole punched in the side of an apartment building) in Nacogdoches.
[UPDATE: I suspect the hole was a figment of my imagination; they've shown plenty of footage of that particular debris now, and there's no hole.]

For future media historians, I would like to note that CNBC is still showing paid programming. Apparently everyone in their news department is sleeping in this morning. ABC, NBC, and CBS are covering the story...which makes me concerned for all the kids watching the shuttle explode over and over instead of their Saturday morning cartoons.

The good news is that everyone seems to be treating the story calmly. All "terrorist" rumors have been quickly quashed, and the coverage has moved beyond yokel call-in eyewitnesses (sadly, Howard Stern fans have apparently been spamming Dan Rather over on CBS) to experts. I'm glad the press conference is coming up soon. More info will be good--though they're keeping it under rein, you can feel everyone wanting to speculate.

(10:25 AM)
A good collection of interviews with the crew, and a good summary sentiment by MeFi user madamjujujive.

Impact is showing up on Texas radar (see the red-orange blob on the far right, not the ground clutter of DFW.)

UPDATE: Another NOAA radar image that shows the debris trail better. It appears that it may stretch into Louisiana.

Mefi user Calwatch provides a link to a summary (in map form) of Texas eyewitness reports.

For those online, I highly recommend the Metafilter thread. It's about one step ahead of television in terms of providing breadth and synthesis on the story.

(10:38 AM)
I was doing pretty well until I read a Heinlein quote that means a lot to me on Metafilter:

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.
— Robert A. Heinlein, The Green Hills of Earth

I'm going to get away from the computer for a while.

(11:15 AM)
***holes have already started to post related eBay auctions. B*stards. (UPDATE, 11:30: User on the SA Forums reports that the auction has been shut down already. Good for eBay.)

Footage from Louisiana now on CNN shows the explosion head-on, with the debris spreading in many directions.

(11:30 AM)
A lot of debris eyewitnessing going on. CBS is showing pictures of a still-smoking impact zone (for scale, just below my red dot is a human walking the edge of the scorched area) near Fort Worth.

Everyone online is noting that Prontix Integration is a bunch of opportunist jerks for quickly registering columbiadisaster.com. Surprisingly, even the contact phone numbers appear legit.

(11:46 AM)
The mission web page now has a statement from NASA:

A Space Shuttle contingency has been declared in Mission Control, Houston, as a result of the loss of communication with the Space Shuttle Columbia at approximately 9 a.m. EST Saturday as it descended toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. It was scheduled to touchdown at 9:16 a.m. EST.

Communication and tracking of the shuttle was lost at 9 a.m. EST at an altitude of about 203,000 feet in the area above north central Texas. At the time communications were lost. The shuttle was traveling approximately 12,500 miles per hour (Mach 18). No communication and tracking information were received in Mission Control after that time.

Search and rescue teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth and in portions of East Texas have been alerted. Any debris that is located in the area that may be related to the Space Shuttle contingency should be avoided and may be hazardous as a result of toxic propellants used aboard the shuttle. The location of any possible debris should immediately be reported to local authorities.

Flight controllers in Mission Control have secured all information, notes and data pertinent to today's entry and landing by Space Shuttle Columbia and continue to methodically proceed through contingency plans.

More information will be released as it becomes available.

(11:53 AM)
ABC's White House reporter is reporting that the flag atop the White House was lowered "on the President's order".

More good posts on the topic around the web while we wait for the press conference: a good collection of information in the related Instapundit post (including Glenn Reynolds' concise (and please, let it be clear) explanation of why it was not a terrorist attack); good comment threads (as usual) on Electrolite and Making Light, as usual; Spaceflight Now is coming up to speed and passes on the news that "Kennedy Space Center workers have been told that all work has been cancelled for this weekend. Only essential personnel should report for their duties."

Following Reynolds' good example, I'm closing out this post as of 12:05 PM CST. Further updates will be made above.