Een oud-Ascent/Entry Guidance & Procedures Officer van NASA: "This is not the first time that External Tank debris has struck the Orbiter during Ascent. On previous flights with tile damage, the Entry was successful and they felt that this flight would also be successful." Hij, Dennis Bentley, beschreef eerder de Shuttle-procedure van terugkeer in de dampkring. (via Scripting News)

CNN: "NASA officials said the left wing lost hydraulic sensors, lost tire pressure and then experienced intense heat before the shuttle broke up Saturday morning."

Space: "On Saturday, that same wing started exhibiting sensor failures and other problems 23 minutes before Columbia was scheduled to touch down. With just 16 minutes remaining before landing, the shuttle disintegrated over Texas.

Just the day before, on Friday, NASA's lead flight director, Leroy Cain, had declared the launch-day incident to be absolutely no safety threat. And an extensive engineering analysis had concluded that any damage to Columbia's thermal tiles would be minor.

(...) As for other possibilities, however, NASA said that until the problems with the wing were noticed, everything else appeared to be working fine. "

Drie afzonderlijk opererende onderzoekscommissies worden ingesteld om het ongeluk te onderzoeken.

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