[Robe]

Reported on DRUDGE REPORT.....

Final radio transmission between Columbia and Mission Control:

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

Columbia: 'Roger, uh, ...' (transmission breaks off after the crew member starts to stay a word begining with the sound 'buh.')

My comments......
The tires are uninflated while in orbit and are inflated during the re-entry phase... It looks like they just did that... Could the LAST word fragment be ..."Blow out "?

If a tire blew it could have damaged / blew off the landing gear door. This would have caused an aerodynamic effect of yawing the shuttle to either side, which would be all that is necessary to cause an areodynamic break up,.. Or the loss of a door would allow 5-10,000 Degree heat to enter the wheel well and cause what NASA has described a 'BLOWTORCH EFFECT" causing structural failure of the wing.

GOD rest their Souls.....

[Kip Lange]

Still so early. SO much that could have gone wrong. Still all speculation.

[OReilly]

If a tire blew it could have damaged / blew off the landing gear door. This would have caused an aerodynamic effect of yawing the shuttle to either side, which would be all that is necessary to cause an areodynamic break up,.. Or the loss of a door would allow 5-10,000 Degree heat to enter the wheel well and cause what NASA has described a 'BLOWTORCH EFFECT" causing structural failure of the wing.

I read that at the moment of breakup, (16 minutes out from landing) the computer rolls the shuttle 57 degress for the first S turn, where the underbelly takes the main impact of the atmosphere hitting the Shuttle.

[txradioguy]

My guess is that the increase in preassure was the increase in heat on the tires (expanding the air in them) from some kind of failure in the heat shield. IMHO.

[George W. Bush]

The tires are uninflated while in orbit and are inflated during the re-entry phase... It looks like they just did that... Could the LAST word fragment be ..."Blow out "? If a tire blew it could have damaged / blew off the landing gear door.

Seems very unlikely they would be inflating the tires up where the air was still so very thin which would be more dangerous than waiting until landing. I would guess full inflation would be made much closer to landing. They don't even put the gear down until they're a couple hundred feet off the ground.

[The South Park Republican]

Good post.