STS-107

Report #21

Monday, Feb. 3, 2003 - 7:00 p.m. CST

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

NASA engineers continued to review data and recover debris from the Space

Shuttle Columbia today as the analysis of what caused the orbiter to break

up Saturday en route to landing continued.

Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore told an afternoon briefing that

several teams of engineers are making progress in their study of data and

video from Columbia's launch and entry, but cautioned that it is a

"massive job" requiring round-the-clock efforts to piece together

the events that led to a loss of communications with the Shuttle over north

central Texas 16 minutes prior to touchdown.

Still, Dittemore said NASA would pause Tuesday for a memorial ceremony at

the Johnson Space Center at 1:00 p.m. EST to honor the lives and the memory

of Columbia's astronauts, Rick Husband, William McCool, Dave Brown, Kalpana

Chawla, Mike Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon. President and Mrs. Bush

will join NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe at JSC for the memorial which is

closed to the public, but which will be broadcast on NASA Television.

Dittemore said the memorial represents an opportunity to take time to

remember the sacrifice of the astronauts, to mourn them and to

"remember our friends."

Dittemore offered additional and refined information regarding the timeline

of events that led to Columbia's breakup on Saturday (all times CST):

· At 7:52 a.m. CST, three-left main gear brake line temperature

sensors showed an unusual rise in the left wheel well area.

· At 7:53 a.m., a fourth left brake line strut actuator temperature

sensor showed a 30-40 degree rise in temperature over a five-minute period,

slightly higher than reported yesterday.

· At 7:55 a.m., A fifth left brake line main gear sensor showed a

sharp rise in temperature.

· At 7:57 a.m., left wing temperature sensors failed "off-scale

low", meaning no further data was being received on the ground.

· And at 7:59 a.m., just before communications was lost with Columbia,

there was evidence of drag on the aerosurfaces of the left wing, causing two

out of four yaw steering jets in that area of the Shuttle to fire for 1.5

seconds to counteract the increased drag.

Dittemore said more time will be needed to retrieve an additional 32 seconds

of data acquired by ground computers after communications was lost with

Columbia to see if it is useful to the inquiry. He said engineers would go

directly to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System ground station hub

in White Sands, New Mexico to collect and analyze that data in its pristine

form.

Although the investigative teams have a "high interest" in the

left hand wheel well area of Columbia, Dittemore cautioned that a

temperature increase there does not indicate that a structural problem

occurred as a factor in the vehicle's breakup. In fact, Dittemore said the

data suggests that "something else" may have been happening at the

time, not indicative of a structural breach.

Responding to inquiries regarding a piece of foam insulation which fell off

Columbia's external fuel tank about 80 seconds after launch that struck the

left wing of the Shuttle, Dittemore said imagery analysis showed that the

foam measured about 20 inches by 16 inches by 6 inches and weighed about

2.67 pounds. He reiterated that engineering analysis conducted during the

flight concluded for NASA managers that although the foam might have caused

some structural damage to the wing area, it would not have been sufficient

to cause a catastrophic event.

"There is some other missing link contributing to this event,"

Dittemore said. We are extremely interested in seeing any debris that may

have fallen upstream of the main impact area," referring to any

additional debris which might be recovered in an area to the west of Texas.

Earlier today, former President George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Barbara Bush

visited the International Space Station flight control room at the Johnson

Space Center, Houston, TX to pay their respects to the flight controllers

and to the Expedition 6 crew aboard the orbital complex.

The former president told Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight

Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit that

President Bush relayed his "full confidence in the space program"

in a conversation with the elder Bush Sunday. The former president told the

crew the men and women of NASA were showing "great courage" in the

wake of the accident.

Bowersox, Budarin and Pettit spent the day preparing for the docking of a

Russian Progress resupply vehicle to the ISS Tuesday at 9:50 a.m. EST. The

new cargo ship, which contains a ton of food, fuel and supplies for the

crew, was successfully launched Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in

Kazakhstan. NASA TV coverage of the Progress docking to the ISS begins at 9

a.m. CST Tuesday.

The next STS-107 Accident Response briefing will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 4

at NASA Headquarters in Washington at 4:30 p.m. EST. Status reports will be

issued as developments warrant.

NASA TV is on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization at 85 degrees

west longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.

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