Meanwhile, Aviation Week has reported on Spaceflightnow.com that "High-resolution images taken from a ground-based Air Force tracking camera in southwestern U.S. show serious structural damage to the inboard leading edge of Columbia's left wing, as the crippled orbiter flew overhead about 60 sec. before the vehicle broke up over Texas killing the seven astronauts on board Feb. 1."

Aviation Week sources close to the investigation, said the images were under study at Johnson Space Center in Houston.. 'and show a jagged edge on the left inboard wing structure near where the wing begins to intersect the fuselage.'

The images are also reported to show Columbia's 'right aft yaw thrusters firing,' while 'Columbia's fuselage and right wing appear normal.'

NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said Thursday NASA was not ruling out the possibility that foam peeled off Columbia's external fuel tank damaged some ceramic tiles on the underside of the left wing, triggering the shuttle's disintegration as it re-entered earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

On Thursday, O'Keefe stressed that the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board would have the final word as to when the space shuttle fleet, grounded since the accident, would resume normal flight schedule.

At a loss to explain why the Columbia disintegrated 16 minutes before its scheduled landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration stressed it was looking into every theory.

Space shuttle grounded until independent probe gives green light: NASA Houston, Texas (AFP) Feb 07, 2003 - Unable to explain why Columbia disintegrated 16 minutes before its scheduled landing, NASA stressed Thursday it is looking into every theory, and said a decision to resume space shuttle flights rested with an independent board. "We have not ruled out any cause," said Ron Dittemore, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's space shuttle manager, while discounting the likelihood the disaster could be traced back to a piece of foam hit the left wing on take-off. He said investigators were still at a loss to understand what caused the spacecraft to break into flaming debris upon reentry into the atmosphere Saturday, killing its crew of seven. Investigators are still "looking for that elusive missing link ... that may take some time," Dittemore said at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, for his part stressed that the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board would have the final word as to when the space shuttle fleet, grounded since February 1, would fly again. "We are going to be guided by the board's findings. I think the intention here very clearly is they will reach conclusions, and the conclusions will come from them and only them," O'Keefe said at a news conference in Washington. The commission earlier started work at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where thousands of pieces of debris from the shuttle found in eastern Texas and western Louisiana are being stored. The group is headed by retired admiral Harold Gehman, who co-led a probe into the 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen.

"We are going to be guided by the board's findings," O'Keefe told a news conference in Washington. "I think the intention here very clearly is they will reach conclusions, and the conclusions will come from them and only them."

"We have not ruled out any cause," said NASA's space shuttle manager Ron Dittemore.

However, after it apparently discounted the theory on Wednesday, the US space agency had returned to examining how the ceramic tiles forming the shuttle's heat shield may have been damaged during Columbia's lift-off on January 16.

"It's hard for us to understand why a piece of foam that has fallen off the tank could have been a root cause, but that is not stopping us from continuing to investige that particular event as being a potential root cause," Dittemore said Thursday at the Johnson Space Center here.

"We are planning testing of foam impact on tiles; we are performing analysis."

And investigators are still "looking for that elusive missing link ... that may take some time," Dittemore said.

The commission earlier started work at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where thousands of pieces of debris from the shuttle found over a huge expanse in eastern Texas and western Louisiana are being stored.

The group is headed by retired admiral Harold Gehman, who co-led a probe into the 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen.

And Dittemore reiterated the experts' interest in trying to decipher garbled data captured by ground computers 32 seconds after voice contact with the Columbia broke off, just before it broke apart in flaming debris.

"We're very hopeful that there's some information in that data stream that will provide us a clue," he said.

At about the time communications were cut off, an alarm alerted the Columbia's crew that something was wrong with tire pressure detectors, said Dittemore, adding that, "based on our telemetry, we can see that they pushed a push button in the cockpit that acknowledges the message."

He said a massive search for wreckage, concentrated mainly in eastern Texas, continued, but was hampered by bad weather.

He also said NASA investigators had yet to identify wreckage reported to have fallen over California.

US Vice President Dick Cheney and O'Keefe on Thursday led mourners at Washington's National Cathedral, in the latest tribute to the seven fallen astronauts. President George W. Bush had attended a memorial there on Tuesday.

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