With barely 24 hours remaining before an imperiled Columbia was set to streak home to Earth, NASA e-mails show that senior techs and engineers were not only worried about the bird, but were concerned about the same kinds of hazards that appear to have caused the shuttle's breakup.

The e-mails, released yesterday in what is becoming yet another in a regular series of NASA soul-cleansing rituals, show that a number of staffers were worried, but that these concerns apparently didn't reach critical decision-makers. What's particularly disturbing is that the detailed concerns brought up in these communications were specific concerns about super heated plasma entering critical wing structures and the wheel well.

The group apparently discussed the matter thoroughly, with some of their concerns ultimately reaching the head of NASA's Langley Research Center. Unfortunately; the discussion went nowhere from there and the concerns were tabled... until February 1st.

Just two days before the tragedy at least one engineer, Robert Daugherty, discussed the potential of an overheating of the landing gear assembly, which he said was "likely to result in a potentially disastrous tire blowout while the spacecraft was re-entering the Earth's atmosphere."

Another staffer, Jeffrey Kling, a flight controller in Mission Control at at Johnson Space Center, opined that super-heated plasma might be introduced into Columbia's wheel well, resulting in a possible LOVC (Loss of Vehicle and Crew). Kling's team recommended that such an emergency "is going to be to set up for a bailout (assuming the wing doesn't burn off before we can get the crew out)."

The very next day, STS-107 broke up as Kling became one of the first in mission control to report sensor concerns in Columbia's left wing.

Yet another e-mail from Daugherty discussed other emergencies, such as belly landings, asymmetric gear deployment, two flat tires, and/or bailing out of the shuttle. Daugherty is quoted as writing, "Admittedly this is over the top in many ways but this is a bad time to get surprised and to make decisions in the last 20 minutes." 

Other STS-107 News

In the meantime; the CAIB has released pictures of at least one shuttle tile (see preceding pictures) that seems to have some mysterious stigmata, which might corroborate the theory that the craft received in-flight damage.

According to retired Admiral Harold Gehman (to the right of the picture, right), who heads the independent panel investigating this disaster, "This is not re-entry heat damage."

The seared tile was found near the town of Powell, in NE Texas. Photographs show orange deposits in jagged grooves on the surface of the tile.

FMI: www.caib.us