Space Forum / Shuttle / January 2004

OK, I'll bite. On the plus side it was informative to see the various
video clips of the reentry gathered together in one clip. On the
downside, it was too arty for my taste: I was quite annoyed at having
downloaded that huge Earth zoom-out shot at the end of it for example.
Do you want to inform or express your art? Do either and say so, so we
can decide if we want to download your work.

As for the quote, I think you're miles off. I think it's insulting to
the professionalism of the astronauts to suggest as you do that the
soundbite "...was a product of him being a proud pilot. If his 'bird'
was going to go down, it was going down with him tuned in, knowing,
'riding the reality'. I believe it was a statement for the record...not
for any temperature condition in the cabin, but for his sense of the
overall reentry conditions." I think it incredibly insulting to suggest
that Husband essentially abandoned his duties and was given to such
musing in the middle of what was undoubtedly an intense technical
exercise with his crew's lives in his hands.

As for the exact interpretation of the words: well, played over and over
again as you have you can hear whatever you want to in it. I don't think
that helps to establish what was actually said. It just reinforces your
own impression.

I suspect that "feeling the heat" is just a normal comment that re-entry
heating had gotten to the point where it radiates through the windows and crew
are aware of it.

One would have to have lots of experience handling comms on the ground, of
having flown with Husband to be able to comment on his radio transmissions. If
he always told ground the point at which he started to feel the heat, then
this comment would have been deemed to be totally normal and in fact perhaps
painted a very normal re-entry process since Husband would have had the time
to make such "scenery" comments.

If Husband never commented on this (and if none of the other commanders would
comment on this), then perhaps you could have started to wonder about why this
comment would have been made.

The problem was in the wing. The cabin would have continued to function
perfectly. The warnings on loss of telemetry would have been the clues, not
any "heat" felt in the cabin. And even the early warnings were dismissed as
just a glitch.

And by the time a trend was seen on loss of telemetry, the crew would have
become aware of inability to maintain attitude at which point the pilots would
have realised they had a BIGGEr problem that just lack of a reading on tire pressure.

As far as the video, it is hard to pass judgement. It is safe to assume that
there was more to it than was released to the public. Whether it revealed
information or not, the public will never know.

There's usually a reason that comments or statements are not commented upon.

In this case, it's most likely a lack of agreement with your position.

"Everybody's out of step, but my little Charlie"
-- says the mother whose child marches off in a different direction from the
rest of the band.

Roger

Honerstly your sites darkness and color choices make it hard to read. I skip
over stuff like that all the time.

why not quote the area of interest here for moree discussion