The shuttle’s last seconds

Houston

The space shuttle Columbia was spinning out of control in the seconds before it broke apart, investigators said this week. The shuttle made its last transmission—a two-second burst of flight data—30 seconds after commander Rick Husband spoke the crew’s last word to mission control, “Roger.” The data indicated the shuttle had been turning in circles like a skidding car. Investigators said a crew member might have tried to override the autopilot to steer Columbia back on course. By then, the intense heat of re-entry might have burned through the aluminum of Columbia’s left wing, which might have been left exposed by heat tiles damaged during the shuttle’s launch. Attempts to right the craft failed, an official said, because the left wing and maneuvering rockets were already “pretty well fried.”

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