Space Junk

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

James Cartwright was trying to stress that yes, even if they didn't shoot it down, going through the atmosphere would take care of any information anyone could try to glean from the craft itself, "with the heating, and the burning..."

Yeah, sure Mr. Cartwright. *honk* *honk* tell me another one....

Originally Posted by Space Shuttle Columbia

One item recovered from the debris field was a videotape recording made by the astronauts during the start of re-entry. The video recording lasts for thirteen minutes and shows the flight crew astronauts conducting routine re-entry procedures and joking with each other, none of them giving any indication of a problem. The video shows the flight-deck crew putting on their gloves and passing the video camera around in order to take footage of plasma and flames visible outside the windows of the orbiter, and ends approximately four minutes prior to the start of the shuttle's disintegration.

They do not want this thing recovered (and with good reason)