Mission control have had a total loss of communication with the space shuttle Columbia since 1400 UTC, just before it was due to land at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

CNN are running shots of the shuttle at high altitude over Texas with a contrail and several smaller pieces also contrailing.

Pure speculation but pictures show what appears to be a very high speed, in-flight break up of Columbia. It doesn't look good.

Break-up occured at an altitude of approximately 200,000ft and a speed of over 12,000 mph.

Just heard on CNN that Mission Control in Houston has lost contact with the Space Shuttle over Texas. It was due to land at 0916 EST. Hope things are not as ominous as the reporters are making it out to be.

CNN now reporting NASA declaring an emergency.Several warnings giving not to touch or stay clear of any debris found in the Texas area!

Very sad indeed...

A very sad reminder that what we now regard as routine is in fact incredibly dangerous, and with little chance of survival if anything goes wrong.

Was watching on NASA TV via the internet, last comms. at 0800 (1400 gmt). Search and rescue crews in the Dallas FW area have been scrambled. Public bieng to told to avoid any debris due to toxic chemicals etc. This is going to be NASA's darkest day since the Challenger accident.

for crew of one of the ultimate flying jobs,

RIP

Hearing reports of an impact in Palestine (Texas) - how ironic would that be?

Just watching the news and yes it doesn't look good at all.
multiple high altitude contrails.....
I guess that might be the end of the program

We have the NASA channel on our cable system. It's such a shock to see the break-up this morning, after having watched the astronauts, direct from the shuttle last night, during this mission. May their souls be at peace.

I dont believe this... 45 mins ago I was reading this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/w...00/2643109.stm

Then I go next door and put on the TV...

R1, in shock

This is as tragic as any disaster, aviation or otherwise. However, its impact is greater given that the entire space program, and especially the Shuttle, epitomises all that is great in human endeavour. In the context of these uncertain times, we are all, no doubt, wondering if this is more than a tragic accident (since this was first posted, the US Government discounted terrorist involvement).

Condolences to the families of all involved.

I just logged into my news service and saw the bad news. At first I thought it was joke but realized, yes it happened again.

God Bless the the flight crew, their families and the shuttle operations team.

From CBC Radio:

Wide vapor trail,
long duration of tornado like sound,
houses shaking

Announcer mentioned "breakup at six times speed of sound"

Dear Max angle..could u be so kind as to supply web address for NASA TV.. I have not had any luck myself.......cheers in advance....f

No longer ATC,

The NASA TV site is swamped.

BUS429... so I just discovered............thoughts go out to all concerned....

God speed guys...........

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/index.html

The link is very slow; I wouldn't be surprised if they have taken the service off air at the moment.

A very bad day for NASA. 7 people probably dead, and this was also a very important mission for them.

RIP

Approx. 100 mi. SE Dallas.

Approx another 200 mi. to Gulf Coast over some swamp and bayou country.

As with meteors, impact sites can be considerably past sightings.

My prayers for the families ... I witnessed the launching of this mission two weeks ago in Florida....