The director of the shuttle program at NASA, Ron Ditmore, said tonight at a press conference that after a careful examination of the damage that could be caused as a result of insulation foam hitting the insulation tiles of the left wing
The director of the shuttle program at NASA, Ron Ditmore, said tonight at a press conference that after a careful examination of the damage that could be caused by the impact of insulation foam on the insulation tiles of the left wing, the investigation is focused on other possible causes." According to him, the investigation is currently focused on the question of whether there was "an incident. Another that escaped the attention of the researchers" that could have led to the disintegration of the shuttle. It is possible that the ferry disaster was caused by a failure in the automatic system responsible for navigating the ferry.
The remains of the body of the Israeli astronaut, Lt. Col. Ilan Ramon, who perished in the space shuttle Columbia crash, were discovered yesterday. His family members hope that it will be possible to hold his funeral this coming Tuesday in Israel, but the final date of the funeral depends on the finding and identification of additional body parts. Ramon will be buried with a full military ceremony. The Chief of Staff, Major General Moshe Ya'alon, is expected to positively examine the possibility of promoting Ramon to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Israeli officials in the US said that most of Ramon's body parts were found in the state of Delaware and were definitely identified by both dental and DNA tests. The representative of the military rabbinate, Lt. Col. Zvi Belek, who was sent from Israel, also participated in the identification of the body. Yesterday night, the Ramon family members and IDF representatives in Houston were notified of the identification of the body. NASA did not provide any information yesterday about the progress of locating the remains of the other six astronauts.
Yesterday it was reported that scientists in the US warned NASA nine years ago that space shuttles could explode if fragments hit the protective tiles at the bottom of the space shuttles' wings during launch. Senior representatives of NASA emphasized yesterday that the insulation method using tiles is good and safe and said that despite the audit reports on their durability, there was no assessment that this constitutes a safety problem.
