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Cause of Fiery Fall Is Unknown; Ship Was Fleet's Oldest February 1, 2003 By JAMES BARRON The space shuttle Columbia, streaking across a bright blue Texas sky at about 3.5 miles a second, broke up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere this morning, barely 15 minutes before it was to have landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. President Bush, speaking from the White House, confirmed that the spacecraft had been destroyed, killing all seven crew members. ``Columbia is lost,'' he said. ``There are no survivors.'' The president's remarks ended any hope of survivors among Columbia's crew of six Americans and one Israeli, Col. Ilan Ramon, a former fighter pilot who had become a hero in the 16 days that Columbia was in space. Mr. Bush, who invoked religious imagery more than once in his brief speech from the Cabinet Room this afternoon, paid tribute to the crew's ``courage and idealism.'' ``These men and women assumed great risk in the service to all humanity,'' Mr. Bush said, adding that they had faced the dangers of space flight ``knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life.'' The president spoke slowly, his voice falling almost to a whisper at times. ``The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, yet we can pray that all are safely home,'' he said. Officials offered no immediate explanation for why Columbia, which first flew in 1981 and had logged more than two dozen spaceflights, disintegrated about 38 miles up as it raced toward the scheduled conclusion of its mission. Sean O'Keefe, the NASA administrator, said that a panel of safety officials from other federal agencies and the military had been named to investigate. The accident turned a day that had begun in giddy anticipation into one of mourning. Relatives and friends of the crew had been standing beside the space center's runway in Central Florida, waiting to welcome them home. Colonel Ramon's father was in a television studio in Israel when cameras caught sight of what appeared to be a normal re-entry. But soon after, around 9 a.m., NASA lost contact with Columbia after the astronauts reported a problem with ``tire pressure'' - apparently space-flight lingo for a reading of some concern on one of the instruments in the cockpit. That was the last that NASA heard from the shuttle, and the truth was evident to anyone watching: Columbia had broken up, and pieces were flying away from the body of the orbiter as it fell, in a terrifying arc, toward Earth, strewing debris over the East Texas region. Columbia did not answer repeated calls from controllers, and its 9:16 a.m. Eastern landing time passed with no sign of the shuttle - only the countdown clock at Cape Canaveral reaching zero with an eery silence and witnesses in Texas saying they had heard a thundering explosion and seen flaming debris tumbling toward earth. Soon, television networks were broadcasting videotape that showed what was almost certainly Columbia's single vapor trail dividing into several white streaks in the sky and plunging earthward. Some witnesses described a sudden in-flight flash and a puff of smoke, and people in the East Texas region reported finding debris across a wide area between Plano and Tyler. Some of the charred chunks of metal blackened the ground. Victoria Lafollet, the city manager of Nacogdoches, Tex., said a door from the shuttle might have been among the many pieces that landed there, but she added, ``The number of pieces being reported is just impossible to keep up with.'' Television pictures from East Texas showed numerous pieces of debris in backyards, roadways and fields. Until midafternoon, the space agency described the status of Columbia and its crew as unknown. But the flags were lowered to half-staff at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and at the White House about 90 minutes after the shuttle failed to land on schedule. In addition to Colonel Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, Columbia's crew included Col. Rick D. Husband of the Air Force, its commander; the mission pilot, Cmdr. William C. McCool of the Navy; Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson of the Air Force, the payload commander in charge of the science equipment; Dr. Kalpana Chawla, an aerospace engineer; and two Navy doctors, Capt. David M. Brown and Cmdr. Laurel Salton Clark. Columbia was the oldest orbiter in the shuttle fleet and was on the 88th shuttle mission since the Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts aboard. As was the case with Challenger, it was immediately apparent from video pictures broadcast on television today that chances were slim that any of the astronauts could have survived. NASA's Web site warned the public against picking up debris. Because Colonel Ramon was aboard, security had been unusually tight for the mission. But experts considered it unlikely that the shuttle had been attacked. Columbia was so far away that surface-to-air missiles could not have reached it. ``We have no indication that the mishap was caused by anything or anyone on the ground,'' Mr. O'Keefe, NASA's administrator, said in a news conference. He said President Bush had spoken with the families of the astronauts. Mr. Bush, who had gone to the presidential retreat in Camp David, Md., on Friday after a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, returned to the White House about two hours before he delivered his televised remarks today. Officials said that he had called Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel to express condolences. Columbia's crew had completed more than 80 experiments during their time in orbit. The flight was reported to have gone smoothly except for an incident shortly after liftoff on Jan. 16, when a piece of insulating foam on an external fuel tank broke loose and possibly hit Columbia's left wing. But the lead flight director at Mission Control, Leroy Cain, said on Friday that NASA engineers believed that any damage to the wing would have been minor and would not pose a safety hazard as Columbia headed back to earth. On the ground, people heard an explosion - B.J. Holland, who lives in Henderson, Tex., 135 miles west of Dallas, thought it was a sonic boom. Others said their houses shook. Stumbling outside on a sleepy Saturday morning to see what had happened, they stared at the sky, shrugged and went back inside, only to see bulletins appear on television. In Palestine, Tex., about 97 miles southeast of Dallas, the police were barraged with calls from witnesses. ``They saw vapor trails going across the sky and sparkles and stuff, then didn't see it anymore,'' said Cpl. Steve Petrovich of the Palestine police. ``One person called to say they saw it going east, then turn north, then vanish.'' Faustine Skinner, who lives in Nacogdoches, said she was lying in bed when she heard ``a horrible explosion.'' She said she figured it was thunder, until she realized that the sun was out. ``Then I knew it couldn't be thunder,'' she said. ``I kept thinking, this has got to be something that has happened.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/01/national/01cnd-shut.html?ex=1045134511&ei=1&en=7745a2be746c8dad HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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