Hi Brian and List, I just returned from the Mojave Desert a couple hours ago, and have been reading through all the e-mail traffic that I knew would be waiting for me. I left my house very early this morning to do some field research up in the Barstow area. I left earlier than I needed to so that I could be further to the northeast during the expected time of Columbia's reentry (thus improving on the culmination angle, and getting above the L.A. basin muck). Attached is my visual report that I sent to NASA in case it would be of any help in reconstructing the timeline of events that led up to the failure. The short version is that I saw nothing out of nominal from 5:55:00 to 5:55:30 PST, and my predawn skies were excellent. Still in shock, Rob - - - - - Greetings and condolences from southern California, Per recommendation of some of my NASA and JPL colleagues, I wanted to forward my visual report of Columbia's reentry as seen from southern California's Mojave Desert. I was traveling northbound on I-15 south of Hesperia looking for Columbia and its plasma trail low in the north at 5:55am PST. Right on time, Columbia appeared in the NNW quickly moving left to right into the NNE, culminating roughly 8 degrees above the horizon. Contrary to reports I've read from other observers in more northern California (e.g. Bishop), I saw nothing out of the ordinary in the reentry plasma trail, nor any unusual brightness fluctuations in Columbia itself. I was able to follow the Orbiter until roughly 5:55:30 PST, and all appeared nominal to me. Admitedly, I did not have the best vantage point being so far south of the reentry groundtrack, but I believe I would have noticed if anything material had detached from the Shuttle during the ~30 seconds I could see it. By deepest sympathies to the families and friends of Columbia's astronauts -- I'm an aerospace engineer for SAIC (and a former Rockwell employee at the time of the Challenger disaster), so these tragedies touch me deeply. Rob Matson Newport Coast, CA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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