CAT Scans Suggest Cause of Columbia Disaster

Kathy Miles writes "The latest information from Columbia's flight data recorder, along with CAT scan results from RCC layers from shuttle Atlantis' leading wing edge, may give clues to what really happened to Columbia. The flight data recorder shows that there was likely structural damage before Columbia began re-entry. Investigators have been looking at the remaining shuttles and have done CAT scans on Atlantis' reinforced carbon-carbon layers, which show gaps that should not be there. If Columbia had similar gaps, it could have doomed the orbiter."

Comments

20 seconds

[geoswan]

Today's NY Times has an article about analyzing those recently found tapes. It says that there was something like 20 seconds from the loss of voice contact, and the shuttle's breakup.

there *are* things they could have done after find

[Tablizer]

If in the very unlikely event military satelites had seen a serious gash, they couldn't have done anything about it when it was in space.

That is not true from what I read. Some things that could have been done:

* Reduce the weight of the shuttle by tossing non-critical systems. This would decrease friction.

* Rotate shuttle to put damanged portion in shadow just before reentry. This would reduce tempurature a bit.

* I have read that there were ways to reduce the peak reentry friction by spreading it out over time