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Left wing is key { February 11 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-shut11.html http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-shut11.html Wing piece is from left side: NASA February 11, 2003 BY MARCIA DUNN SPACE CENTER, Houston--After three days of uncertainty, NASA said Monday a piece of broken wing found last week was from space shuttle Columbia's left side--where all the problems appear to have begun in the doomed flight. The fragment includes a 2-foot piece of carbon composite, a material that covered the leading edge of the wing, and a 1-1/2-foot piece of the wing itself. Engineers are not yet certain where the piece fits. It could be extremely important, given that the trouble apparently originated in the left wing during the final minutes before the Feb. 1 flight broke up above Texas, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Barely a minute after liftoff Jan. 16, a piece of insulating foam from Columbia's external fuel tank broke off and slammed into the ship's left wing. The impact by the flyaway foam--exonerated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from having caused serious damage--remains a central part of the investigation. In the final minutes of flight, some sensors in the left wing and in the left wheel well showed unusual spikes in temperature. After the wing fragment was found last Friday, NASA's deputy associate administrator for spaceflight, Michael Kostelnik, called it ''a significant recovery.'' NASA was checking the carbon panel and the silica glass-fiber thermal tiles for evidence of burning, either from the intense heat of re-entry or from something else. ''That's something that the engineers would be looking for,'' Kostelnik said. NASA said it also has found the cover of one of the two landing gear compartments, another potentially critical piece because a temperature surge inside the left wheel well was the first sign of trouble. But officials do not know whether it's from the right or left side. Another incident highlighted confusion among top NASA officials as to what wreckage is being found--and where. Bill Readdy, NASA's top spaceflight official, said one of the shuttle's main computers had been found in a Texas field ''apparently in fairly good condition.'' He later said he was told it was an avionics box--one of more than 300 on the spacecraft. AP Copyright © The Sun-Times Company All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Breach was farther out { April 16 2003 } Columbia heat vortex { March 8 2003 } Exterior penetrated { February 13 2003 } Left side heated sharply { February 3 2003 } Left wing is key { February 11 2003 } Nasa identified left wing { February 11 2003 } Probe shuttle heating { February 4 2003 } Shuttle breakup earlier { March 10 2003 } Shuttle war pierced { February 14 2003 } Strange lights { February 2 2003 } Strange lights2 { February 2 2003 } Superheated shuttle { March 31 2003 } Files Listed: 12

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