The space shuttle Columbia, the oldest orbiter in NASA's fleet - more than 20 years old - was considered for retirement two years ago. The 90-ton spacecraft was also the heaviest spacecraft in the fleet, and underwent a $90 million, 17-month overhaul beginning in September 1999. On its last, fatal flight, it is believed that a number of heat insulation tiles fell off one of the wings when a piece of foam insulation fell backwards during the shuttle's eight-minute race to orbit. The tiles were to protect the shuttle from the intense friction heat of atmospheric re-entry. "We don't think that the tiles were a problem. When we analyzed it 10 days, we did not think that it was an issue," said NASA shuttle flight director Ron Dittemore.
Body parts have been found among the remains of the ill-fated space shuttle.
Avi Belizovsky, deputy editor of Information Week and a spaceship expert, told Arutz-7's Arik Kahane today that both during the lift-off and the attempted landing, "the same part of the craft was involved: the left wing. There is thus circumstantial evidence to suggest that what happened during lift-off had something to do with the loss of the ship." He explained that the missing heat panels were not missed during the 16-day flight because "it's cold in space, even on the sun-side; the panels are needed only when the ship returns to the atmosphere and has to lessen its speed, at which time the temperature rises to thousands of degrees."
Belizovsky raised the question of why the NASA control center, upon learning of a problem in the spaceship, did not instruct the crew to make another revolution around the earth so that the problem could be studied. Kahane noted that NASA did not publicize the fact that the panels had fallen off during lift-off until yesterday.
Body parts have been found among the remains of the ill-fated space shuttle.
Avi Belizovsky, deputy editor of Information Week and a spaceship expert, told Arutz-7's Arik Kahane today that both during the lift-off and the attempted landing, "the same part of the craft was involved: the left wing. There is thus circumstantial evidence to suggest that what happened during lift-off had something to do with the loss of the ship." He explained that the missing heat panels were not missed during the 16-day flight because "it's cold in space, even on the sun-side; the panels are needed only when the ship returns to the atmosphere and has to lessen its speed, at which time the temperature rises to thousands of degrees."
Belizovsky raised the question of why the NASA control center, upon learning of a problem in the spaceship, did not instruct the crew to make another revolution around the earth so that the problem could be studied. Kahane noted that NASA did not publicize the fact that the panels had fallen off during lift-off until yesterday.