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stions could have enormous impact, since they could place in a different context NASA’s decisions against more aggressively checking possible wing damage in the days before Columbia’s fatal return. (47)Investigators believe breakaway insulating foam damaged part of Columbia’s wing shortly after liftoff, allowing superheated air to penetrate the wing during its fiery re?entry on FeB. 1 and melt it from the inside. (48)Among those decisions was the choice by NASA’s senior shuttle managers and administrators to reject offers of satellite images of possible damage to Columbia’s left wing before the accident. The subject dominated the early part of Wednesday’s hearing. Gehman complained that managers and administrators “missed signals” when they rejected those offers for images, a pointedly harsh assessment of the space agency’s inaction during the 16?day shuttle mission. “We will attempt to pin this issue down in our report, but there were a number of bureaucratic and administrative missed signals here,” Gehman told senators.“We’re not quite so happy with the process.” (49)The investigative board already had recommended that NASA push for better coordination between the space agency and military offices in charge of satellites and telescopes. The U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency in March agreed to regularly capture detailed satellite images of space shuttles in orbit. (50)Still, Gehman said it was unclear whether even images from America’s most sophisticated spy satellites might have detected on Columbia’s wing any damage, which Gehman said could have been as small as two inches square. The precise capabilities of such s
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