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The space shuttle Columbia may have been shedding heat-protection tiles as it flew over the United States on its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, NASA officials have said.
At the same time, officials confirmed that remains of the seven astronauts on board Columbia had been found.
NASA has vowed to leave 'no stone unturned' in its investigation into why the space shuttle disintegrated just minutes before its scheduled landing on Saturday (01/02/03).
Heat sensor readings have shown that the temperature of the left side of the craft started to rise as it passed over California and New Mexico and that the shuttle was experiencing increased drag on the same side.
Experts are carrying out a painstaking analysis of the mass of data transmitted back from the shuttle in the final minutes of its flight.
Another key part of the investigation will be analysing the pieces of the shuttle which rained down over the southern US - a process likely to take months.
Possible damage to Columbia's protective thermal tiles on its left wing had already been flagged up as a cause for concern.
The wing was hit by a piece of insulating foam which peeled away from the external fuel tank a little more than a minute into Columbia's launch on 16 January.
The incident was spotted and checked at the time, NASA officials said. But they acknowledged they could not now rule out a connection.
As Americans mourned the deaths of the shuttle's seven astronauts, police teams scoured large areas of Texas and Louisiana for shuttle fragments.
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