I�m sorry for there loss and there are no words that can express some magical idea of how to get past this. Time is the essence that heals all wounds.

Now let�s look past this for a minute.

So far we don�t know why this happened or how it happened. It will take time to investigate the remains before we can be given a final answer. Yet this tragedy screams heavily of the same mindless thinking that went into the Challenger explosion. This is something that could have been avoided if money wasn�t such a factor in this.

Now NASA is funded by the government, but is not an official branch of the government, at least not how other branches of the government are handled. Meaning civilians do the work and private business build the ships and all that is needed. Since it�s done like this, it runs just like any other business that seeks contractors. Whoever makes the lowest bid on a project wins it.

Think about that. In order to under cut competition sacrifices have to make somewhere. Some of those sacrifices will be the ship and its material quality. God knows they are not willing to take that cut out of there profits. They are going to get as much of that as possible, even if that means using a lesser material for the hull or not using as much.

Now if I�m wrong about this I�m sorry. If it�s something other then ship malfunctions then I admit right now I�m wrong about this.

But if it�s like how the Challenger is these sacrifices I mentioned would be the key to what happened.

Now don�t quote me on this, but this is basically what happened with the space shuttle Challenger for those of you who don�t know. The gaskets around the support boosters had one flaw. When brought to an extremely low temperature then reheated really fast there is a possibility they can crack under the pressure. In this case it did, leaking jet fuel which leads to its explosion.

They knew ahead of time that this was a probability. One of the company�s employees spotted this flaw and brought it to there attention. In what I can only guess was a decision that the possibility of it happening was so low to them that it wasn�t worth the loss of money and time or a possible loss of the NASA contract. So this fact was buried then ignored. Only later to come back and bite them in the ass.

Now I�m hoping I�m wrong here, but how it looks right now this could be a repeat of history. It couldn�t have crashed into a commercial airliner at the height of it�s explosion which was estimated to be roughly 200,000 feet. Commercial airliners fly over half that distance closer to the surface. Anything natural flying in with it through the orbit would more then likely have already burned up busting through the atmosphere. Anything big enough to make that far should probably have shown up on satellite.

So that leaves not many possibilities why this happen. Could it be a possible attack? Well we know it wasn�t a surface to air missile or someone would have spotted it by eye or by radar. The same could be said about a possible plane or jet up there. Unless some information was intentionally withheld from the public I don�t think these could be possibilities.

So that pretty much leaves up with either pilot error or shuttle malfunction.

And I swear unless we find decent evidence to prove it I will go ape shit of someone claims it to be sabotage or a terrorist attack. We don�t need a bunch of assholes out there stirring up shit like that without some form of concrete evidence. A large part of humanity could blindly accept this as a possibility if someone �seems� like they are telling the truth. And even more will accept it as fact instead of fiction if enough people say it�s true.

The last thing we need is some false accusation like this creating a conflict that will lead to a war, guaranteed.

If what I think is how it happened then something needs to be changed about NASA regulations with contractors and sub-contractors.

Greed needs strict regulations or more of this shit will happen.

It's about time - Wednesday, Jul. 07, 2004
An Honor for Chrome - Friday, Feb. 20, 2004
A great loss - Monday, Oct. 20, 2003
a terrible announcement. - Tuesday, Sept. 09, 2003
Chrome speaks: - Friday, Sept. 05, 2003