Analysis and Testing Underway to Support the Working Scenario:
Although there is an abundance of existing evidence supporting the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) Working Scenario described above, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) and NAIT have the following analyses and testing underway to refine the details of the scenario:
1) Completion of RCC and space shuttle tile impact testing at Southwest Research Institute.
2) Aerothermal analyses to correlate off nominal heating trends in left fuselage sidewall and left Orbiter Maneuvering System (OMS) pod heating that were observed in the MADS data.
3) Instrumentation wire burn-through arc jet tests and thermal analyses to support the timing of observed instrumentation failures.
4) Instrumentation circuit analyses or testing to confirm the failure signatures observed in the data.
5) Hypersonic wind tunnel testing and aerodynamic analyses to explain aerodynamic roll and yaw moments observed in flight data.
6) Thermal analysis of RCC panel 9 clevis and spar temperature sensor responses to support or refute flight data.
7) Gas flow and heat transfer calculations internal to the wing to support the MADS sensor readings in and around the wheel well.
8) Arc jet testing and/or analysis of previous arc jet testing to determine feasibility of RCC erosion observed in several key pieces of RCC panel 8/9 debris.
9) Continued forensic testing and analysis of significant recovered debris.
10) ET dissection and cryopumping tests.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) has not reached any final conclusions and has not determined the cause of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and crew. The board's final report will be issued later this summer.
