The loss of the shuttle, one of four in NASA's fleet, casts a shadow over the US space programme, coming as it does when defence costs are soaring over homeland security and war preparations in the Persian Gulf. NASA will conduct its own investigation, and Senate and House committees will conduct separate inquiries. Gehmen, will sift through the Columbia wreckage being collected and transported to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.įBI agents are also assisting in the recovery, but officials emphasised that there was no evidence of sabotage. The independent inquiry, led by retired Navy admiral Mr Harold W. The rise was most marked - 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 Celsius) - on the mid-fuselage and particularly around the left wheel well as Columbia crossed California. Mr Dittemore said temperatures shot up on the left hand side of Columbia in the seven minutes before the radio went dead. He also said there was no evidence that the crew knew what was happening. But even up to the loss of radio contact with the seven crew, ground controllers did not believe the shuttle was experiencing serious problems, NASA space shuttle programe director Mr Ron Dittemore told a press briefing. Temperatures on Columbia rose as the space shuttle hurtled across the United States and disintegrated as it entered the atmosphere to land, NASA officials said yesterday. Minutes before the craft disintegrated, mission control in Houston lost data from hydraulic sensors in the left wing's control flaps and from temperature and pressure sensors in the left landing gear's wheel-well and brake-line. It is also possible that there was an explosion of fuels and oxidizers, or that the craft buckled as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
NASA engineers believed it hit the left wing but that it did not cause enough damage to prevent a successful re-entry - though even if it had, there was no way to repair the craft. Speculation on the cause of the break-up has centred on heat-resistant tiles on the under-section of the craft, as the incident occurred at the exact moment when the heat of re-entry was at its maximum.ĭuring lift-off on January 16th, a piece of spray-on foam insulation detached from the shuttle's liquid-fuel tank. The shuttle was travelling at 18 times the speed of sound, 39 miles above Texas, when disaster struck.
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