I: Introduction & Copyrights

• Introduction & Copyright Information
• What is the purpose of this FAQ?
• Contributors to the FAQ
• Glossary & Acronyms used in this FAQ

II: STS-107 Mission Profile

• What exactly happened to Columbia?
• Who were the crew?
• What sort of mission was Columbia on?
• Who were the Flight Controllers for this mission?

III: The Breakup of STS-107

• Where and when did Columbia break up?
• What was Columbia's status prior to breakup?
• Was Columbia in reentry LOS at the time of breakup?
• Were there any anomalies in telemetry prior to the breakup?
• What was that query about "Tire Pressure" prior to the breakup?
• What was the last voice communication received from Columbia?
• What happened to the crew when Columbia broke up?
• Was it an explosion, or just disintegration due to aerodynamic stress?
• Where did the debris wind up?
• What's going to happen to the debris after the investigation ends?

IV: Timeline Of Events

• Introduction
• Timeline of Events

V: Recovery, Retrieval and Video Footage

• Have the Astronauts' remains been located?
• Are Any Permanent Memorials Are Being Planned For The Crew?
• What if I find debris? What should I do?
• What if I find someone in possession of and/or someone trying to sell Columbia debris?
• Just how toxic is the debris?
• My dog got hit by Shuttle debris! How can I sue?
• I've got video footage of the breakup. Does NASA want it?
• Where can I find those images of Columbia as seen during the NASA press conferences?
• What is Israel's big concern over Ramon's remains?
• How much scientific data was lost?

VI: Smoking Guns, Theories, Guesses, Hoaxes and Facts

• What's the best guess as to what caused the breakup?
• Just how fragile are those tiles?
• Have any other Shuttle flights experienced tile problems?
• What's this about 32 seconds of data after voice contact was lost?
• What about "Black Box" data?
• What's this about one of the Astronauts being heard saying "We're burning up!"?
• What's this about ice and/or External Tank insulation hitting the tiles underneath Columbia?
• What this about Columbia being launched with an old External Tank?
• What does the External Tank Insulation consist of?
• What's this about a secret internal e-mail about the tires?
• What this about the Shuttle tires being Firestones?
• Could this have been due to an act of terrorism?
• What's this about a photo of a cracked wing?
• What's this about pictures from an Israeli spy satellite showing Columbia exploding?
• What's this about Columbia getting hit by lightning?
• What's this about some leaked internal memo regarding foam damage?
• What's the big stink about the camera that took the "Starfire Photo"?
• What's on that videotape the search teams found?
• Didn't STS-87 have a tile impact problem?
• What is the "Crater" program, and what's the big stink about it?
• What's This About Ron Dittemore's Resignation?