Early Investigation Focuses on Columbia's Left Wing

Wing Struck By Foam On Lift-Off

Friday, Leroy Cain, NASA's lead flight director, said debris that struck the Columbia's left wing shortly after launch constituted absolutely no safety threat. Saturday, Columbia broke up in flight and now, Cain may regret his statement.

In a Saturday afternoon news conference at the Johnson Space Center in Houston (TX), NASA officials said they had spent several days investigating a chunk of insulating foam which, during lift-off Jan. 16th, broke away from the shuttle's external fuel tank and hit the left wing. At the end of a two-week long investigation, Cain concluded any damage to Columbia's thermal tiles would be minor at most.

"As we look at that now in hindsight, we can't discount that there might be a connection," shuttle manager Ron Dittemore (right) said, hours after the tragedy. "But we have to caution that we can't rush to judgment, because a lot of things in this business that look like the smoking gun but turn out not to be close."

The End of Shuttle Columbia

Columbia had just entered a roll maneuver, its left wing down, 57 degrees from horizontal.

NASA officials said they got their first glimmer of the impending disaster at 7:53 CST, as the orbiter plunged into the atmosphere. It was 203,135 feet above the Earth, traveling at 18.3 times the speed of sound. First, temperature sensors on the left wing flight surfaces failed. Then, approximately three minutes later, sensors monitoring tire pressure on the shuttle's left main landing gear failed. That set off a warning light in the shuttle cockpit, and a final interchange between the crew of seven astronauts and Mission Control.

Mission Control: "Columbia, Houston we see your tire pressure messages and we did not copy your last."

Columbia: "Roger, uh, ..."

That was the end of Columbia. Only static followed that last transmission.

“That was when we lost all vehicle data. That's when we began to know that we had a bad day,” said Chief Flight Director Milt Heflin (right).

The Investigation Begins

Asked if the foam impact on the left wing could have damaged Columbia's delicate heat tiles, Dittemore said, if so, there was precious little the shuttle crew could have done to save itself.

"There's nothing that we can do about tile damage once we get to orbit," Dittemore said. "We can't minimize the heating to the point that it would somehow not require a tile. So once you get to orbit, you're there and you have your tile insulation and that's all you have for protection on the way home from the extreme thermal heating during re-entry."

FMI: www.nasa.gov