![]() Temperatures on Columbia rose as the space shuttle hurtled across the United States and disintegrated as it entered the atmosphere to land, NASA officials said yesterday. Minutes before the craft disintegrated, mission control in Houston lost data from hydraulic sensors in the left wing's control flaps and from temperature and pressure sensors in the left landing gear's wheel-well and brake-line. It is also possible that there was an explosion of fuels and oxidizers, or that the craft buckled as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. ![]() NASA engineers believed it hit the left wing but that it did not cause enough damage to prevent a successful re-entry - though even if it had, there was no way to repair the craft. Speculation on the cause of the break-up has centred on heat-resistant tiles on the under-section of the craft, as the incident occurred at the exact moment when the heat of re-entry was at its maximum.ĭuring lift-off on January 16th, a piece of spray-on foam insulation detached from the shuttle's liquid-fuel tank. The shuttle was travelling at 18 times the speed of sound, 39 miles above Texas, when disaster struck.
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