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The Saker Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Lockdown Skeptics
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international edition
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a BOLT from the BLUE national |
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news report
 Wednesday February 05, 2003 16:14 by Sabin Russell - San Francisco Chronicle srussell at sfchronicle dot com
 Mysterious purple streak is shown hitting Columbia 7 minutes before it disintegrated A Chronicle reporter was present when the astronaut arrived. First seeing the image on a large computer screen, she had one word: "Wow." In the critical shot, a glowing purple rope of light corkscrews down toward the plasma trail, appears to pass behind it, then cuts sharply toward it from below. As it merges with the plasma trail, the streak itself brightens for a distance, then fades. "It certainly appears very anomalous," said Jernigan. "We sure will be very interested in taking a very hard look at this." S.F. man's astounding photo Top investigators of the Columbia space shuttle disaster are analyzing a startling photograph -- snapped by an amateur astronomer from a San Francisco hillside -- that appears to show a purplish electrical bolt striking the craft as it streaked across the California sky. The digital image is one of five snapped by the shuttle buff at roughly 5: 53 a.m. Saturday as sensors on the doomed orbiter began showing the first indications of trouble. Seven minutes later, the craft broke up in flames over Texas. The photographer requested that his name not be used and said he would not release the image to the public until NASA experts had time to examine it. Although there are several possible benign explanations for the image -- such as a barely perceptable jiggle of the camera as it took the time exposure -- NASA's zeal to examine the photo demonstrates the lengths at which the agency is going to tap the resources of ordinary Americans in solving the puzzle. Late Tuesday, NASA dispatched former shuttle astronaut Tammy Jernigan, now a manager at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, to the San Francisco home of the astronomer to examine his digital images and to take the camera itself to Mountain View, where it was to be transported by a NASA T-38 jet to Houston this morning. A Chronicle reporter was present when the astronaut arrived. First seeing the image on a large computer screen, she had one word: "Wow." Jernigan, who is no longer working for NASA, quizzed the photographer on the aperture of the camera, the direction he faced and the estimated exposure time -- about four to six seconds on the automatic Nikon 880 camera. It was mounted on a tripod, and the shutter was triggered manually. In the critical shot, a glowing purple rope of light corkscrews down toward the plasma trail, appears to pass behind it, then cuts sharply toward it from below. As it merges with the plasma trail, the streak itself brightens for a distance, then fades. "It certainly appears very anomalous," said Jernigan. "We sure will be very interested in taking a very hard look at this." Jernigan flew five shuttle missions herself during the 1990s, including three on Columbia. On her last flight, the pilot of the craft was Rick Husband, who was at the controls when Columbia perished. "He was one of the finest people I could ever hope to know," said Jernigan. It was an astounding day for the San Francisco photographer, who said he had not had any success in reaching NASA through its published telephone hot lines. He ultimately reached investigators through a connection with a relative who attends the same church as former astronaut Jack Lousma, who flew 24 million miles in the Skylab 3 mission in 1973. Lousma put him in direct touch with Ralph Roe Jr., chief engineer for the shuttle program at Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston. After a series of telephone conversations Tuesday afternoon, the photographer had a veteran shuttle mission specialist knocking at his door by dinnertime. Within hours, he was left with a receipt, and his camera was on its way to Houston. E-mail Sabin Russell at srussell@sfchronicle.com |
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Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5What's next? Santa Claus did it? The Loch Ness monster? ET?
I mean, for fucks sake. Some bloke claims to have a photo of a 'mysterious purple streak'. That didn't appear on any of the radar screens, or more powerful cameras trained on the shuttle. That is easily explained by any number of stupid mistakes an amateur can make. That hasn't even been _released_.
Does your dictionary not contain the word 'gullible'? Try 'credulous'.
Or 'idiot'.
Elvis was on that shuttle. After living with the aliens for decades he had decided to return home. But once he was discovered on the space station the US government HAD TO stop him so the public wouldn't find out about area 51 and who killed JFK. So THEY BLEW UP THEIR OWN SHUTTLE!
This truth has GOT TO GET OUT!! EMAIL EVERYBODY YOU KNOW AND TELL THEM!!
;)
ON COLUMBIA'S FIERY DESTRUCTION
by JOHN CHUCKMAN Wed, Feb 5 2003, 4:15pm
NOT YOUR ORDINARY COMMENTARY...
Shaitan sent a Djinn to bring the Shuttle down; he had a falling out with Sharon.
This photographer was not just "some guy" with a snapshot camera; he is an amateur shuttle photographer who has taken many hundreds of shots of the shuttle. It's his hobby, but a serious one.
This was very likely a high intensity lightning strike on the shuttle as it reentered. And very well may be what caused the crash.