NASA still can't repair the kind of shuttle wing damage thought
to have destroyed Columbia on re-entry. That type of repair, once
thought easy to accomplish, is now the biggest obstacle to the
shuttles' return to flight, proposed for next year.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) found that foam
debris from the space plane's external fuel tank probably punched a
hole in the orbiter's left wing. That allowed super-heated gas to
breach the heat shielding and caused Columbia to break up in
flight.
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