SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA - How and why the tragic accident happened.
 

This is why and how it happened:

When Columbia started into Orbit, the Shuttle lost part of the isolation of one of its fuel tanks.

This piece of isolation hit the left wing of Columbia.

NASA said last Friday it believed this damage to be "insignificant".

"It should not cause problems at re-entry of the Shuttle", they said.

They were wrong.

God were they wrong.

A reasonable question: Why NO EVA to verify no damage when they were docked with the ISS??

That piece of debris that came apart and impacted the wing upon launch may have damaged part of the heat shield system. Of course, without that protection, the 3000 degrees of heat generated during re-entry may have caused the disintegration of the shuttle. :(

That's one of the first things I was wondering this morning as well.

I heard it was Ice but the fact of the matter is there was no EVA Inspection or even a visual done of the damage the Tile Insulation system is fragile!

They had time in space to check the wing.

on the early shuttles the Insulation was Balsa wood (fuel tank)now I do not know what they use!

I think while your report is true about a piece of insulation breaking off on liftoff and hitting the leading edge of the wing, you are a bit premature about the cause of this tragety. unless you are affiliated with NASA and know more than the rest of us, Speculation is not advised.

Not my speculation, Nasa representitive speaking on the radio...
Sorry, should've mentioned it.

sorry , i was respoding to Apache

Sorry, no problemo. :cool:

Originally posted by gdfatha:
A reasonable question: Why NO EVA to verify no damage
when they were docked with the ISS??

gdfatha: They were NOT docked with the ISS!

All Shuttles before did dock with ISS.

Columbia was the only one which did not dock - they just did their 80 experiments on their own.