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<p>Accident investigators yesterday blew a hole bigger than a basketball in a space shuttle's carbon panel, bolstering suspicion that a chunk of foam insulation caused enough damage to destroy the Space Shuttle Columbia.</p> <p>"We have found the smoking gun," Scott Hubbard, a member of the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said following the test in San Antonio.</p>

<p>Accident investigators examining the disintegration of the Space Shuttle Columbia said more forcefully yesterday that foam insulation had shed from the orbiter's external fuel tank and pierced its left wing.</p> <p>Investigators also said they will recommend that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration find better ways to guard against damage to thermal protection tiles from foam.</p>

Investigators make strongest comment yet on Columbia cause WASHINGTON, June 24 — In their strongest statement yet on the Columbia disaster, investigators said Tuesday that flyaway foam was “the most probable cause” of the wing damage that brought down the space shuttle almost five months ago.

WASHINGTON - A suitcase sized chunk of foam that smashed into Columbia's left wing and damaged a critical heat shield is "the most probable cause" of the Columbia space shuttle disaster, an investigation panel said Tuesday. It was the strongest statement to date on what caused the shuttle to disintegrate on re-entry, killing seven astronauts aboard. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board has suggested in the past that the insulation may have shattered the heat shield, but before the board always called the foam impact only a "candidate" cause. Board member Roger Tetrault said that an analysis of the tons of...

NASA has released almost 10 hours of videotape and 92 photographs taken during Ilan Ramon's space shuttle mission. The videotapes and film were recovered near San Augustine Texas during the three month search for debris from Columbia. All together 38,500 kgs. of debris were recovered over an 6,400 square km. area in Texas and Louisiana. Out of 337 videotapes 28 had usable footage. The first videotape with recovered video showed flight deck as the astronauts prepared for reentry. It was released a couple of weeks after the accident. NASA delievered the rest of the recovered videotapes to the National Transportation...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - NASA failed to learn important lessons from its past mistakes and needs to improve its oversight of shuttle contractors, some of America's top space experts told Columbia investigators Thursday. But they said declining budgets at the space agency may not have contributed directly to the tragedy.</p>

Nasa deal closes the door on Columbia inquiry CIVILIAN members of the expert group investigating the Columbia space shuttle disaster have been put on the Nasa payroll to ensure much of the inquiry will be carried out in secret. The highly controversial move - which has prompted angry accusations that the inquiry can no longer be considered impartial - will see the five civilian representatives on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) each receive executive-level salaries of up to $134,000 (£82,000) a year. If the civilians - who were supposedly recruited to ensure the investigation was independent from Nasa -...

Searchers find live worms in shuttle wreckage Wednesday April 30, 2003 By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Hundreds of worms being used in a science experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia have been found alive in the wreckage, NASA said Wednesday. The worms, known as C. elegans, were found in debris found in Texas several weeks ago. Technicians sorting through the debris at Kennedy Space Center in Florida didn't open the containers of worms and dead moss cells until this week. All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1. Columbia...

Shuttle Investigators Zero in on Breach HOUSTON - Columbia accident investigators said Tuesday they are close to zeroing in on where a hole opened up in the spaceship's left wing and strongly suspect the fatal blow was caused by a chunk of flyaway foam at liftoff. AP Photo Space Shuttle Columbia Special Coverage   "I feel that we're probably within 30 inches of where the actual breach occurred," said Roger Tetrault, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. "We're closing in." A fragment of a panel or seal along the vulnerable leading edge of Columbia's left wing is...

— Investigators now have the strongest evidence yet that the space shuttle Columbia's left wing was critically punctured during liftoff, when falling debris started the fatal chain of events that led to the breakup of the shuttle when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere, ABCNEWS has learned. The evidence comes from an old magnetic tape recorder that is part of the Orbiter Experiment Support System, sources said. It shows an unusual temperature increase in a key sensor just behind the leading edge of the left wing near the spot where foam that fell from the shuttle's external fuel tank is suspected of...

Shuttle Doomed at Takeoff Telltale Heat Spike Was Recorded After Debris Strike April 18 — Investigators now have the strongest evidence yet that the space shuttle Columbia's left wing was critically punctured during liftoff, when falling debris started the fatal chain of events that led to the breakup of the shuttle when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere, ABCNEWS has learned. The evidence comes from an old magnetic tape recorder that is part of the Orbiter Experiment Support System, sources said. It shows an unusual temperature increase in a key sensor just behind the leading edge of the left wing near the...

New fuel tank design linked to shuttle disaster   13:20 16 April 03   NewScientist.com news service   The Columbia shuttle disaster may been triggered by a combination of a new external fuel tank design and ageing of the spacecraft, a Columbia Accident Investigation Board press conference was told on Tuesday. Although some remaining alternatives remain to be ruled out, the CAIB's focus is now on two crucial factors. First, it appears that a new fuel tank design led to foam falling off during liftoff. A one-kilogram block was seen striking Columbia's left wing during launch. Secondly, the damage this impact caused may...

<p>HOUSTON - A communications breakdown, a flawed analysis and a false sense of security may have led NASA to incorrectly assess the damage done by a piece of foam that struck Columbia during its launch, an accident investigation board said.</p>

Radar tests point to lost panel on shuttle 13:56 02 April 03 Will Knight Tests have revealed that an object spotted falling from the space shuttle Columbia on the second day of its doomed mission was a panel of protective heat-resistant tiles. The absence of this panel would have provided a point of entry in the shuttle's left wing for the superhot gases that investigators believe got inside the craft during re-entry. The plasma melted the shuttle's aluminium frame and caused the craft to disintegrate, with the loss of all seven astronauts aboard. Radar pictures revealed the object falling from...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Columbia's salvaged data recorder registered unusual temperature spikes in the left wing just seconds after the shuttle experienced the peak heat of re-entry, indicating the ship was mortally wounded before it began its descent, an official close to the investigation said Sunday. And that makes the flyaway foam from the shuttle's fuel tank, during launch, an even stronger suspect for breaching the leading edge of the wing, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A chunk of foam, perhaps containing ice or other debris, broke off the tank during Columbia's liftoff on Jan. 16...

<p>HOUSTON - Superhot gas entered the front of Columbia's left wing just 16 seconds after the orbiter penetrated the hottest part of Earth's atmosphere, according to temperature sensor readings extracted from a flight recorder salvaged from the wreckage.</p> <p>The sensors, located just inside the leading edge panels of the shuttle's left wing, recorded rising temperatures about one minute before any previously reported trouble, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board said Sunday.</p>

<p>New data may reveal what happened until three seconds before Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated Feb. 1, extending what investigators know about the orbiter's final moments.</p> <p>A preliminary review of the data recorder by engineers at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., indicates that magnetic tape in the data recorder has readings from a network of 721 sensors throughout Columbia as late as 18 seconds after 9 a.m. EST Feb. 1.</p>

<p>Space Shuttle Columbia investigators said yesterday that they discovered new flaws with insulation applied to external fuel tanks used by NASA.</p> <p>They also are planning tests to figure out how much damage insulation could have caused when it slammed into the shuttle's left wing.</p>

HOUSTON - In what could be one of the most significant debris discoveries yet from the shattered Columbia, searchers found a data recorder that may hold valuable clues as to what destroyed the space shuttle, the accident investigation board said Wednesday night. A spokeswoman for the board, Laura Brown, said the ship's recorder was intact but sustained some heat damage. Officials are hoping that temperature and aerodynamic pressure data can be retrieved from its magnetic tape, she said. Brown compared the recorder to an airplane's black box. "We have no way of knowing whether the data can be recovered," she...

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