[HairOfTheDog]

There was no contradiction. Did NASA say they had never discussed concerns about the severity of the damage to the wing?

[Jael]

Then the memo shouldn't be a problem and you can relax.

[Jael]

MICHAEL KOSTELNIK: That is actually the first I have heard of that memo. The best and brightest engineers we have who helped build and design that system looked carefully at all the analysis and the information we had at this time and made a determination this was not a safety or flight issue.


NASA officials are now trying to explain the memo while they're also facing allegations that the Agency removed five members of its safety review panel, in a bid to suppress their criticism.

From Houston, John Shovelan reports.

JOHN SHOVELAN: Just two days before the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated a team of NASA engineers sent an internal memo which discussed possible problems on re-entry for the Orbiter.

The memo estimated there was a high probability heat shielding tiles beneath the left wing had suffered a gash about 22 centimetres wide and about eighty centimetres long during the launch.