|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Space Station Alpha Crew Sees Terrorist Carnage from Orbit
By Todd Halvorson
Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief
posted: 11:25 am ET
11 September 2001
|
iss_view_nyc_010911 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The billowing plume from the collapse of the World Trade Center could be seen aboard the International Space Station Tuesday. Circling some 240 miles (384 kilometers) above Earth, U.S. astronaut Frank Culbertson and two Russian cosmonauts spotted towering clouds from the collapse of the trade centers twin towers as the outpost and its crew passed over the northeastern U.S. "As we went over Maine, we could see New York City and the smoke from the fires," Culbertson told engineers in NASAs Mission Control Center in Houston. "Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there and everywhere else." Culbertson and his two colleagues Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin also peered down the eastern seaboard of the U.S., but it was unclear whether the trio could see smoke from a plane crash into the Pentagon. "I hope that the people responsible are caught and brought to justice as soon as possible," said Culbertson, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former military test pilot. "But first, our prayers and condolences to everybody involved." Launched Aug. 10 aboard shuttle Discovery, Culbertson and the so-called Expedition Three crew are in the midst of a four-month research tour aboard the international station. The trio is due back on Earth in early- to mid-December. Security at NASAs coastal Florida spaceport, meanwhile, was increased in the wake of the terrorist attacks. So-called "hands-on" checks of identification badges were being made at KSC security gates and a helicopter circled the KSC Vehicle Assembly Building. The 52-story building, which is the third largest by volume in the world, is the edifice within which NASA equips space shuttle orbiters with their external tanks and solid rocket boosters. Standing some 525 feet (160 meters), the building was erected in the 1960s to assemble Saturn 5 moon rockets.
|
|
|
|
|
