February 2003

The news items below are updated daily and will cover any paranormal and interesting topics we come across. They are written by HUFOS member, Rita A. Jennings, who kindly donates her time and effort in keeping these News In General pages full of upto date information.

Rita Jennings

Hull UFO Society c/o 62, Egton Street, New Cleveland Street, Hull. N. Humberside HU8 7HU Tel: 01482 219887 Mbl: 07754 036536 Email: Hull UFO Society

Don't forget we hold a monthly meeting every second Tuesday
of every month were we read out more interesting news items like these.

(See Monthly Meetings link on the left hand side of this page)

Shuttle Columbia Breaks Up On Re-Entry - On Saturday 1st. February, 2003. another blow for America's Space Programme occured. Shuttle Columbia was lost over Texas on re-entry. At Cape Canaveral, Fla.(AP) - Investigators are trying to figure out what went wrong. They are immediately focusing on the left wing. In over a minutre into Columbia's launch on the 16th January, it was hit by a chunk of insulating foam peeled away from the external fuel tank. They are also looking at its thermal tiles. If they were damaged, this would have been more serious than Nasa realised. On Saturday, the same wing which was hit was exhibiting sensor failures and other problems 23 mins before Columbia was due to touch down. The Shuttle disintegrated just 16 minutes before touchdown and over 2000 pieces were strewn all over Texas. Pieces of the shuttle along with body parts have been found and people have been advised not to touch them, because of the risk of contamination. Nasa's lead flight director, Leroy Cain, had said that the incident on launch day was absolutely no SAFETY THREAT.

An extensive engineering analysis had concluded that any damge to Columbia's thermal tiles would be minor. Ron Dittemore said on Saturday, "As we look at that now in hindsight, we can't discount that there might be a connection" The shuttle has over 20,000 thermal tiles to protect it from the extreme heat of re-entry. Nasa said until problems with the wing were noticed, everything else appeared to be working fine. The astronauts once in orbit could have done nothing to fix the tiles and the flight controllers could have done nothing to help either, given the extreme temperature of re-entry.

The shuttle broke apart whilst being exposed to peak tempture of 3,000 degress on the leading edge of the wings. It was travelling at 12,500 mph. or 18 times the speed of sound. Once the shuttle was in orbit, nothing could be done about the damage. The shuttle crew had no way of looking at the wing to see if any damage was done, and Nasa did not request help from ground telescopes or satellites, because it did not believe any pictures would be useful. This was the second time in four months that a piece of fuel-tank foam had come off during lift off. Atlantis in October lost a piece of foam that struck the aft skirt of one of its solid-fuel boaster rockets. The damage at that time was thought to be superficial. The astronauts aboard the space station have enough supplies to last until June, and there is talk of a Russian Rocket being sent to bring them back. It look as if the remaining Shuttles will now be grounded, as they were last time when Challenger was lost. It might be years before we see this programme resumed, and some are saying that it might not be. The conspiracy theorist will be having a ball now, and it won't be too long before articles appear on the internet.

Columbia Explosion - Following up on the story of the tragic loss of Columbia, the latest theory about the loss of the shuttle is "Did the Solar Wind cause the incident? On January 31st. several C and minor M Class Solar Flares were observed. This increase in Solar Wind hit the earth at precisely the time of the tragic loss to the Columbia. When the shuttle is in re-entry it is under tremendous stress and strain and there is a theory that these increased solar winds could have unbalanced the olumbia, resulting in the events just unfolded. This message comes from Henry Willis, who has just written the book, "Earth's Future Climate."

Odd Images Seen Near Shuttle - An amateur astronomer in San Francisco has captured 5 strange and provocative images of the shuttle as it was re-entering the earth's atmosphere on Saturday. He took the pictures with a Nikon 8 camera on a tripod. The pictures reveal what appear to be bright electrical phenomena flashing around the track of the shuttles passage. The photographer who does not wish to be identified, has said he will not make them public immediately. According to his photo's they clearly show an electrical discharge (like a bolt of lightning) flashing past when the Columbia started breaking up.

A photographer from "The Chronicle", San Francisco viewed the photo's on the mans computer screen on Saturday night and said "They are indeed puzzling". They show a bright scraggly flash of orange light, tinged with pale purple, and shaped liked a deformed L. The flash appeared to cross the Columbia's dim contrail. At that precise moment the contrail abruptly brightened and appeared thicker and twisted, as if it was wobbling. The photographer said "I couldn't see the discharge with own eyes, but it showed up clear and bright on the film when I developed it. But I'm not going to speculate about what it might be". The mystery what happened to Columbia deepens.

The Tragic Loss Of Columbia - I was watching a Nasa report about the lost of the shuttle Columbia the other evening and something struck me about the no.16. See what you think.......

The shuttle was launched on the 16th January,2003.

It was a 16 day mission.

Contact was lost with the shuttle at 16 minutes before touchdown.

It was returning on the 1st. February,2003. Add the numbers 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 = 8 multiply by 2 and you get 16

Debris was scattered over Nacogdoches.Texas. Add up the letters = 16

The shuttle was last heard from at 8.53. Add up the numbers 8 + 5 + 3 + 16

If you take the number 16 and add each number together, 1 + 6 = 7. This is the number of astronauts onboard.

If you add up the age of the astronauts onboard it comes to 305. 3 + 5 = 8 Multiplied by 2 = 16.

The Mission was ST107. Add 1 + 7 = 8 Multiplied by 2 = 16.

Add up the number of letters in the name Columbia. 8 multiplied by 2 = 16

The debris hit the shuttle and wing at 80 seconds into the launch . 8 times 2 is 16.

Also in Revelations. 16 is the vials of wrath. There were 7 angels.

The inital bank was 80. deg. 8 x 2 = 16. between Hawaii and the California Coast

Nothing to do with the number 16, but it was the 1013 flight made by the shuttles. (13 being an unlucky number for some)

I know a lot of people will think this is a load of rubbish, but I think it is really eerie how the number 16 crops ups in these equations.

New Theory On The Failure Of The Shuttle - Shuttle Programme Manager Ronald Dittemore has today confirmed that their investigation is not focused primarily on the possibility that foam debris from the ship's external tank caused the loss of the shuttle. The debris measured 16 x 20 x 6 inches and weighed 267 pounds. The air velocity was about 1,500 ft. per second or 1023 mph. He stated that the tests done and the results obtained showed that the debris impact, a possible source for wing damage due to entry heating loads, would not have led to the loss of the Columbia. Dittemore quoted "So we're looking somewhere else. Right now, it just doesn't make sense to us that a piece of foam debris could be the root loss of the Columbia and it's crew. It's got to be another reason."

Ice team inspections were held on the day of launch and no signs of ice build up on the tank were found. Video's of the launch show the debris hitting the left wing, and even though the resolutions of the video are poor, they show no obvious signs of damage. Attempts are being made to improve the resolution of the launch video. Nasa hope that the evidence they find on the ground, after testing and evaluating it, will help to find the cause of the crash. They are leaving no stone unturned in trying to figure out what happened to the Columbia. Whether it was on re-entry, or during the launch or on-orbit phase. It has also just been stated that the shuttle crew had between 60 and 90 seconds between knowing something was wrong and their deaths, Nasa said yesterday. It is still not clear what caused this tragic event, tile failure, impact by space debris, a micrometeoroid, problems with the carbon panels on the leading edge of the wing or some sort of structural problem. We can be certain that no matter now long it takes Nasa will eventually solve the question. The future of Space Programmes depends on it.

Columbia - "Secret Top Government Object On board" - In East Texas, hundreds of National Guardsmen, Federal Agents, State Troopers and volunteers are searching the thick woods in the tiny Texas town of Bronson for a mysterious object. The searchers have been given a photo of the object they are looking for (which was marked Secret Government Property) and State Troopers have told them that they will have to leave the area if they find the object.

According to the Houston Chronicle, "the object is a communications device that handles encrypted messages between the shuttle and the ground." Nasa now thinks that Columbia may have been hit by space junk. Scientists state that there are over a million pieces of debris orbiting earth. Before each shuttle mission, the US.Air Force and Nasa have to analyze the shuttles orbit to make sure they do not hit the 9.000 known pieces of large debris already in orbit. Flight paths of 8 shuttles had to be adjusted in order that the they were not hit by debris. When the shuttles were designed in the 1970's there was not so much space debris in orbit but as it accumulated Nasa had to reassess the situation of the likelihood of the shuttles been hit by anything. It would only need a tiny fraction of a piece of debris to hit the shuttle to cause tragic consequences, and Nasa is still considering this theory as to the loss of Columbia just recently.

Is Saddam Hiding A Crashed UFO - According to Joseph Trainor of UFO Roundup, 4 years ago an UFO incident posed the question of whether Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was in any co-operation with extraterrestrials. During Operation Desert Fox, on the 16.12.1998 a video clip was shown on CNN. The clip showed an UFO hovering over Baghdad, it moved away to avoid a stream of tracer anti-aircraft fire. There is a report been made (whether true or not) that an aircraft was found after it had been brought down by F-16. over Saudi Arabia. during raids on Baghdad. This report says "A high-ranking source admitted that US Air Force's F-16 brought down a UFO over Saudi Arabia during the Operation Desert Storm, and five countries are trying to conceal information about this fact. I don't know details, but it was some plane unknown to me. Saudis who were with me at that moment, were scared so much that they asked American, British and French investigators to come to the crash site immediately."

According to the newspaper Pravda, a Russian Colonel Petrokow was in Saudi Arabia at the time and says he saw the crash site. He says the craft was round and made of some material that he never saw before. One third of the craft was torn out by blasts of American missiles. It was a small craft approximately 15 ft. in diameter, had 3 chairs, but they were very small. There were no signs of an engine. He saw no dead bodies and search helicopters surveyed the desert, but failed to find any crew members. Petrokov says that the UFO was heading for Baghdad, and an American plane fired a missile at it, causing it to crash. He stated that when the American investigators arrived, they gathered all wreckage and removed them. All the pictures taken were confiscated by Russian authorities. An Arab reporter Mohammed Daud al-Hayyat says "There are talks about extraterrestrials in Iraq, but nothing is said about any crash." Another reporter, Mohammed Hajj al-Amdar, says, "Saddam gave the aliens sanctuary, so that they couldn't be captured by Americans."

This last statement does seem rather far fetched, but then again, rumours of the American's holding extraterrestrials at Area 51 have been circulating for years. It is a horrible thought, but surely this threat of war which we think is all to do with oil, if not about Aliens instead.

Columbia Was Considered For Retirement In 2001 - Columbia was the oldest orbiter in the fleet of shuttles. The craft cost $2 billion and was the first shuttle to go into orbit in 1981. It weighed 90 ton heavier than the other space craft in the fleet and was the only one not outfitted to dock with the International Space Station. It had experience engineering problems before. In 1999, it deployed the powerful Chandra X-Ray Space telescope, with the first female commander at the helm Eileen Collins. But the mission began with major problems. The shuttle during lift-off leaked thousands of pounds of fuel, leaving it in a lopsided but functional orbit. A short circuit knocked out computers that controlled two of the three shuttle engines seconds after launch. A backup computer system kicked in, narrowly avoiding the need for an emergency landing.

At that time Nasa grounded the fleet for months to inspect and repair exposed wiring on the four orbiters. Each has more than 100 miles of electrical wiring. In September,1999 the Columbia began a 17 month overhaul costing $90 million . Then in 2001 Nasa considered mothballing it because of budget constraints, but decided against it, in part to ensure flying scheduled missions.

Increase In UFO sightings In 2002 - In Canada last year the largest number of UFO sightings in the history of collecting UFO data was recorded. Chris Rutkowski of Ufology Research of Manitoba said "We have had some extra ordinary cases in Canada last year, reported literally from one end o the country to the other." His group have been collecting reports since 1989. In 2002 - 483 UFO sightings were reported. A 30% increase on 2001. and a 250% increase since 1998. In January 2002 near a tiny community of Inberman NB. a large object with flashing lights and brightly lit windows flew slowly and silently over a highway. It was watched by a couple in their car and they watched it as it moved behind some bushes. In British Columbia in 2002 there were 176 sightings, more than Ontario and Quebec combined. This was an increase of 123 on 2001. In Yukon there has also been 20 more reports since last year. Ontario produced 128 reports last year, Alberta 51, Manitoba 36, Quebec 34, Nova Scotia 23, Saskatchewan 6, New Brunswick 4, Newfoundland 3 and Nunavut 2. Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories were UFO-Free zones in 2002.About 18% of all cases remained unexplained but only 7% were considered high-quality cases by researchers. Rutkowski, and other researchers who completed the report state that they don't draw any conclusions from the sightings. The UFO. survey also states that it does not offer any positive proof that UFO's are either alien spacecraft or a specific natural phenomenon.

Columbia Crew Could Have Aborted Launch - When Nasa spotted the large piece of foam that fell from it on launch, it has now been stated that the launch could have been aborted. This would have saved the lives of the 7 crew members onboard. Unfortunately, communication problems prevented the information from getting to the right people. According to retired Navy aviator John Macidull "It was the job of the Range Safety Officer at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral to observe the launch and report any problems to Mission Control." But the Nasa's engineers were not aware of the foam problem until the videotape of the launch was reviewed, some 24 hours after lift-off. There would have been plenty of time to abort this mission, if the information had been passed on. After the rockets had been fired, the shuttle could have glided back to earth, it could have even landed in another country and all would have been safe and well. - IF ONLY - It seems communications between each other has lead to another tragedy. Lets hope that they learn from all these costly mistakes and take more care in the future.

Columbia Investigation 15.2.2003 - The latest theory on the loss of the shuttle is the Columbia was destroyed by a hole in the space crafts aluminium skin. This would have left it vulnerable to super-hot gasses which would have attributed to the space shuttles disintegration. Nasa officials stress that the breach is only one of many possibilities as to the cause of the accident. The superheated air probably seeped through a hole in the Columbia's left wing and possible it's wheel compartment during the craft's fiery re-entry. Adm. Harold Gehman Jr. the investigation board chairman said "All possible causes including sabotage are still being reviewed."

On Saturday, the board were travelling to Lockheed Martin Corporations facility in Louisiana. They have already been to Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, and Marshall Space Flight Centre in Alabama. The Flight Director Leroy Cain, who was on duty on the 1st February, states that he does not want to place too much emphasis on the breach at this moment in the investigation. "There are many other possibilities" Cain said. A retired TRW Inc. engineer and former member of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, George J. Gleghorn said he believed that the breach probably happened during lift-off. Right from the start of this investigation the focus has been on the piece of hard foam insulation that was seen to fall off the external fuel tank during lift-off. When the shuttle broke up on re-entry Cain acknowledged that he immediately thought of the piece of foam, but he stated that when he heard about the sensor readings, he did not imagine that it would cause the loss of the shuttle.

The breach which allowed a stream of superheated gases to penetrate the shuttles left wing, started a cascade of failures. The sensors in the Columbia's left wing one by one, recorded unusual readings during the shuttle's approach over the California coast. According to Cain, the precise meaning of these readings were not immediately clear. The wings have only a few sensors, not enough to indicate if the landing gear hatch had come open or had been breached. The readings of the temperature in the left landing gear compartment was 2,000 degrees or hotter, suggesting that super hot gasses had penetrated this compartment.

According to the investigation board, the missing tile would not have allowed heat to simply radiate into the wing and cause the rise in temperature. Cain stated on Friday, that his flight team could have done nothing to prevent the disaster.The board has been criticized by members of Congress and others at not being independent of Nasa and therefore one or two authorities in high-altitude aerodynamics and thermal engineering are being added to the investigation. Some tests, independent of Nasa are being conducted. Up to now, no debris from the Columbia has been found west of Fort Worth, Texas. Crews are still searching Texas and Louisiana.

New Federal Budget - The American Government, even though they deny UFO's exist, still mention them in the Federal Budget. A budget document of President Bush says "Despite all the space aliens that appear in science fiction movies and books, we have yet to find conclusive evidence for life, even microbes, anywhere in the universe besides Earth." But as you have read in several publications, life has been found in some of the very harsh environments on Earth. There is also the possibility that life might exist on other planets. Life might not just be unique to Earth. The budget calls for $279 million next year and $3 billion over 5 years for Project Prometheus. this includes building the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. This mission will conduct extensive studies of the moons of Jupiter that might harbour subsurface oceans. An aide to President Clinton, Webster Hubbell says the president asked him to investigate whether UFO's existed. He was also asked to find out who was responsible for the assassination of president Kennedy (I think we all know that one). I would love to know if he received the answer to these questions, if he did, he is not saying.

4 Person Space Plane - Washington, Nasa's top 1 level requirements for the envisioned Orbital Space Plane, which will be rocket launched, is that the vehicle be capable of transporting "No fewer than 4" astronauts, to and from the International Space Station. Originally Nasa had planned to build a Crew Rescue Vehicle for the space station. After the discovery of a looming $5 billion space station budget shortfall, cutbacks were ordered. The original plan was to carry 6 or 7 astronauts away to safety in the event of an emergency. The release of the so-called Level 1 requirements of the Orbital Space Plane were intended to be released on the 3rd February, but due to the Columbia accident, this was postponed. Nasa Administrator Sean O'Keefe asked his Executive Council, lead by Nasa Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory, to revisit the requirements. It is not immediately clear what changes, if any, have been made.The Level 1 requirements were meant to give the aerospace companies who were competing to build the systems, an idea of what Nasa wanted. Some of the requirements were:-

The Orbital Space Plane would initially launch on the top of an expendable rocket. A Delta 4 or an Atlas 5.

By 2012 it should be ready to carry the astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

It must allow the crew to operate the system without first donning flight suits. It must have life support systems.

The current station's lifeboat is the Russian Soyuz capsule, and the new one should be more reliable.

The Level 2's, are a more detailed set of requirements and will be completed by the Orbital Space Program Office by late 2003.

Lost In Space - Nasa Officials have confirmed that they have lost contact with the Pioneer 10 probe. Pioneer 10 was launched over 30 years ago. It was the first space probe to send back close up images of Jupiter. It was also the first to pass through the asteroid belt Experts think that the probe's power source may have "decayed" Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972 and was designed for a mission which was to last 21.months. Contact was lost just as it was heading to Aldebaran, a red star.

Is There Life On Mars - Nasa officials say the count down has begun on the launch of 2 robotic buggies which are destined for Mars. Their aim is to find out whether there is or was, any life on Mars. Both buggies are due to arrive at Cape Canaveral within the next few weeks. The launches are due for May and June. They will "piggy-back" on rockets, and will parachute onto the red planet's surface in January 2004.

Galileo's Mission Ended - Galileo's Mission to Jupiter is winding down. Galileo launched in 1989 has been one of the most successful space exploration missions ever undertaken. It is running low on propellant and will last for most probably another 7 months before plunging into the crushing atmosphere of the gas giant . It's mission has been extended 3 times since it's launch by Nasa. Galileo has made a range of discoveries about Jupiter. It has orbited Jupiter 33 times and will transmit a final batch of data before it's mission ends.

Traffic Disrupted By UFO - Last week two traffic accidents occurred in Kingsgate, Scotland, which were apparently caused by a UFO. People in cars were staring at the UFO in disbelief and the accident occurred. Several people reported seeing a huge silver object at about 8.45pm. According to one eye witness it was huge, pulsating and silver in colour and reminded her of the dishes on the side of television transmitters. Then whilst watching it, it suddenly disappeared as quick as a flash. People in a nearby town saw a similar object half a hour earlier. Lee Close of the Anglo-Scottish UFO Research Agency says "That the fact that it's in daylight interests us immensely, previously 95% of sightings were at night. Although now almost equal between day and night time." This must be the first time an UFO has caused a car crash. This should make interesting reading on the accident claim form to the Insurers.

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