The Forensics Behind the Columbia Tragedy

Feb. 4, 2003 -- A helmet, a charred tile, a fleeting image of Columbia above California, seconds of jumbled data. These are some of the myriad clues officials must now scrutinize as they face the daunting task of determining what brought down the space shuttle.

"We want to get every last shred of evidence … and put that into the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that we will start to assemble," NASA Associate Administrator William Readdy said Monday.

As officials collect the "pieces," members of the commission that investigated the 1986 Challenger explosion estimate that a few key areas of evidence are likely to emerge:

Flight data: Data from Columbia's sensors appears to be critical in forming beginning theories about the cause of the breakup.

Debris trail: Determining where debris fell and how it fell will help in tracing Columbia's demise.

Debris analysis: By closely analyzing stress fractures and chemical content of key debris pieces, scientists can gain clues about what triggered the breakup.

Video and images: Video proved critical in understanding what happened during the explosion of the Challenger shuttle and early analysis of an incident after liftoff of Columbia suggests it may be valuable in this investigation.

Better Than Any Black Box

"The shuttle records much more data than anything you'd find on a regular aircraft," said Merritt Birky, a retired fire and explosion specialist with the National Transportation Safety Board who worked on the Challenger investigation. "So I think the data will be very significant in determining the sequence of events that led to the failure."

Data from Columbia has already provided NASA investigators with significant clues, revealing a dramatic spike in temperature and an increase in drag at the left side of the shuttle just before the orbiter disintegrated. The data originated from hundreds of sensors on Columbia that relay their information via satellites or directly to computers on the ground.