i am in disbelief, pacing back and forth across my living room. this will be a quick update, just for the purpose of sharing what i know both as a nasa employee and a person.
no, i have not been called in to work. yes, i work in the descent analysis group, but creating a debris footprint is basically a one-person job. i called my mentor, who is the resident expert on debris footprints, and he said he would call me if he needed me. yes, i will probably end up running debris footprints, but not right now.
no, there is really not even a chance that it was a terrorist act. you cannot shoot down something at 200,000 feet and 12,000 miles per hour.
no, i don’t know what happened. i have educated guesses as to why the shuttle broke up, and my guesses are better than many of the newspeople’s guesses, but they are still just that–guesses.
no, i don’t know what will happen to nasa, or what this means for the future of the space program. honestly, i am scared. the shuttle fleet will obviously be grounded indefinitely, which puts the space station in a bad situation as well.
thanks for the support of those of you who have emailed and called. please extend your support of me personally to include nasa as an agency. space travel has never been and will never be without risks, and the loss of the shuttle and crew is a tragedy. nasa will need much support in the coming days. thanks.