![]() ![]() The New York Times reported yesterday that Nasa officials had confirmed that Columbia sat on its launching pad for 39 days -more than two weeks longer than usual. Nasa maintains that similar events during launch have occurred before without causing catastrophic problems. A report from Nasa engineers, two days before the doomed attempt at re-entry, warned that it could have left a 30in by seven-and- a-half-inch area of damage.īut the technicians decided that it did not present a danger to the craft. The study, conducted by experts at Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University, and financed by Nasa, also identified ice that builds up on the external fuel tank as potential debris that could strike the tiles and cause serious damage.įootage of Columbia's takeoff showed a piece of insulation foam, possibly covered with ice, peeling away from an external fuel tank and striking the left wing. It was the left wheel well where the first increases in heat were detected during Columbia's descent. I can't explain it, it's hell, hell in the sky."īody parts have been recovered including remains of Ramon and a piece of fabric carrying a Star of David that will be sent to Israel for burial.įurther allegations that Nasa might have been able to prevent Saturday's accident came from a 1990 study, which warned that protective tiles around the shuttle's wheel wells were particularly vulnerable to damage. ![]() "It's very difficult, as if I'm with them and I try to imagine what they went through. ![]() "These seconds are always spinning around in my head," he said. Eliezer Wolferman, the father of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space, said in a radio interview that he was haunted by thoughts of his son's last few moments. ![]()
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