Four days after Columbia broke apart 16 minutes prior to landing, Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore said the inquiry into the cause for Columbia's demise is "picking up speed". But Dittemore said efforts to draw any new information from an additional 32 seconds of data acquired by ground computers following the loss of voice communications with Columbia have so far been unsuccessful.

In a briefing, Dittemore said the engineering evaluation teams are focusing their attention on "something other" than insulating foam on Columbia's external tank that fell off 80 seconds after launch striking the left wing, as the reason for the accident.

"It does not make sense that a piece of (foam) debris caused the loss of Columbia and its crew," Dittemore added. He reiterated Columbia tried to compensate for increased drag on its left wing in the seconds prior to its breakup, firing steering jets to right itself. But Dittemore said of Columbia, "It was doing well, but it was losing the battle."

As the engineering analysis continued, the remains of Columbia's astronauts were flown to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, where identification of the astronauts will be completed. At the conclusion of the forensic analysis, the remains will be released to the families for burial.

Dittemore mentioned that three reports dealing with Space Shuttle thermal protection tiles were available for review by the news media. Two of those documents are available via the Internet. The third is available in hardcopy from the JSC newsroom. The titles and website addresses for that information are:

RISK MANAGEMENT FOR THE TILES OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE - 1994