Shuttle recorder yields clues

Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The data recorder from the space shuttle Columbia preserved a “gold mine of information” that could help explain the craft’s fiery end, investigators said. Columbia’s left wing grew dangerously hot more than a minute earlier than was first thought, NASA officials said this week. Data from 9,400 feet of magnetic tape preserved in the recorder indicated that the wing’s temperature spiked seconds after the shuttle reached the peak heat of re-entry into the atmosphere, before it began its descent. Investigators believe searing gases entered the wing, probably along its leading edge, causing the craft to disintegrate. Foam insulation that dislodged at liftoff slammed into the wing at 500 mph, and might have pierced Columbia’s heat shield. Seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle broke apart on Feb. 1.

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