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Shuttle began to fall apart while over the Pacific Ocean HOUSTON -- Shuttle Columbia most likely was losing pieces long before it made landfall over California on Feb. 1, yet continued to "fly like a champ" right until its break-up over Central Texas. At a public hearing Monday, NASA flight director Paul Hill said he was surprised the orbiter maintained control for as long as it did. Right until the end, "the vehicle flew perfectly, there was no indication of what was going on in flight control," said Hill, who is in charge of a team investigating early sightings of...

CBS NEWS STATUS REPORT 06:20 p.m., 03/11/03, Update: Leading edge focus intensifies; wind shear contribution, bipod foam repair work studied; possible chain of events responsible for shuttle loss The Columbia Accident Investigation Board today showed video of Columbia's launching that indicates foam debris falling away from the ship's external fuel tank slammed into the lower leading edge of the orbiter's left wing within a few feet of where it merged with the fuselage. The board also revealed that 20 seconds before the foam fell away from the so-called "bipod ramp" area of the tank just under the shuttle's nose, Columbia...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — One day before the Columbia disaster, senior NASA engineers raised concerns the shuttle's left wing might burn off and cause the deaths of the crew, describing a scenario much like the one investigators believe happened. They never sent their warnings to NASA's brass.</p>

Recovered Tile Could Be Key Shuttle Clue 2 hours, 55 minutes ago Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Broward Liston CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A piece of tile thrown off from the doomed shuttle Columbia as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere and recovered in Texas bears deformations consistent with the kind of hot plasma flow that entered the shuttle through a breach, investigators said on Tuesday. Reuters Photo The tile also appeared heavily scored and pock-marked on the side facing out, with mysterious orange specks embedded in the material. A leading theory among outside experts is that...

Shuttle Investigation Board Focusing on 1-Foot Object Spotted Near Columbia in Orbit SPACE CENTER, Houston - The board investigating the Columbia tragedy said Wednesday it wants to know more about a mysterious object that almost certainly fell off the shuttle and was flying alongside the spacecraft during its second day in orbit.The object was never noticed during the flight itself; after the shuttle's destruction over Texas on Feb. 1, the U.S. Strategic Command began analyzing radar data that might shed light on the disaster and noticed the object.Initially, NASA said it suspected the object might be frozen wastewater dumped overboard...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A theory that pieces of foam from the space shuttle Columbia's external fuel tank struck its wing shortly after launch was being investigated, but was "not a favorite" in the debate over what caused it to disintegrate on re-entry, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said on Sunday. "Well, it's one of many theories, and it's not a favorite of anybody's at this juncture that I'm aware of," O'Keefe said on CNN's "Late Edition." "Everybody is looking at every single possible permutation of what could have caused this," he said. "That certainly is an active element of the overall...

Space Shuttle Exempted From Some Maintenance For years before it broke apart in the skies over Texas, the space shuttle Columbia was beset by recurring problems, glitches and close calls. In 20 of its 28 missions, the first in 1981, Columbia experienced mechanical or technical problems at launch or in orbit. Those problems caused Columbia to have more flight delays than any other orbiter, a review of thousands of pages of NASA documents and interviews show. While nobody is yet sure what caused Columbia's catastrophic ending this month, between 1996 and 1999 the orbiter had at least five "escapes" --...

WASHINGTON - A NASA (news - web sites) safety engineer warned days before Columbia broke apart that he feared the shuttle was at risk for a devastating breach near its left wheel, and he suggested people in the space agency weren't adequately considering the threat. "We can't imagine why getting information is being treated like the plague," the engineer wrote in one of a number of e-mails released Friday that describe greater concerns about Columbia's safety in the days before its breakup. Other documents NASA released show that Columbia may have been struck by as many as three large chunks...

February 19, 2003 Panel Says Shuttle Began to Break Up Over CaliforniaBy DAVID M. HALBFINGER OUSTON, Feb. 18 — The space shuttle Columbia began breaking up over California minutes before it disintegrated in the skies over Texas, members of the accident investigation board said today for the first time. The investigators said that the thousands of pieces of wreckage recovered were a tiny fraction of the spacecraft and that the trail of debris was dwindling, raising the likelihood that ultimate answers would have to come from simulations and laboratory tests rather than from a single, tell-all piece of debris. In...

Board: Shuttle Lost Parts Over Calif. SPACE CENTER, Houston - Space shuttle Columbia began losing pieces over the California coast well before it disintegrated over Texas, the accident investigation board reported Tuesday, finally confirming what astronomers and amateur skywatchers have been saying from Day One. But board member James Hallock, a physicist and chief of the Transportation Department's aviation safety division, said the fragments were probably so small they burned up before reaching the ground. He said the conclusion that the space shuttle was shedding pieces a full six minutes before it came apart over Texas was based on images...

(CBS) The space shuttle Columbia's last major overhaul — the largest in the history of the program — involved some components and systems now under suspicion in the investigation into the orbiter's final, disastrous descent. No evidence has emerged linking the work performed on Columbia during the 17-month refurbishment to the shuttle's breakup Feb 1. Columbia flew one successful mission after the overhaul was completed in 2001. However, inspection and work records from that overhaul at the Boeing Co. plant where the shuttle was built in Palmdale, Calif., may hold clues. Among the modifications to NASA's oldest shuttle were increased...

The shuttle orbiter Columbia's left wing was increasingly compromised by the penetration of 2000F reentry plasma starting over the Pacific Ocean 400 mi. off the coast of California, early in the hottest phase of its disastrous reentry Feb. 1, according to new data released by NASA. p This information provides more detail on sensor readings and when they occurred relative to the orbiter's ground track during the reentry, which ended in the loss of Columbia and her seven crewmembers over north central Texas. One critical finding is that a breach in the left wing-along its leading edge, its landing gear...

<p>SPACE CENTER, Houston -- Investigators into the space shuttle disaster still believe important clues might be found in west Texas and points even farther West -- even though no debris has yet been found.</p> <p>The reason for their faith in the absence of evidence is a wealth of credible photographs, video recordings and eyewitness reports from California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. More than 1,500 photographs and videos of Columbia's re-entry have poured in to NASA.</p>

<p>The likelihood that the truth of what led to the disaster aboard space shuttle Columbia will fully be known has increased dramatically - now that NASA has come to its senses and admitted it cannot control the investigation.</p> <p>The space agency announced Thursday that it was ceding its ultimate authority over the investigation. It also agreed to a congressional demand that new members - with no ties to NASA - be named to the review board appointed just hours after the shuttle broke up, killing all seven astronauts aboard.</p>

STATEMENT BY THE COLUMBIA ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BOARD (Feb. 13, 2003) Note: The CAIB has asked NASA for administrative support to release information to the public and the media. The following statement was provided by the CAIB for release. Thermal Analysis Shows Hot Plasma Possible in Columbia Left Wheel Well Area Preliminary analysis by a NASA working group this week indicates that the temperature indications seen in Columbia's left wheel well during entry would require the presence of plasma (super heated gas surrounding the orbiter during re- entry). Heat transfer through the structure as from a missing tile would not be...