Space Shuttle was Hit by Purple Electric Bolt

[Guest guest]

S.F. man's astounding photo

Mysterious purple streak is shown hitting Columbia 7 minutes before

it disintegrated

 

Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, February 5, 2003

 

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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.