Large Gash on Shuttle Tiles - Breaking News - No Link Yet -

MSNBC on the air reports that an internal NASA memo written two days before the shuttle landing warned of problems during reentry due to a 30 inch by 7 inch gash in left wing tiles.

The day after liftoff a review of telescopic film of the launch showed a large section of the insulation on the main fuel tank broke off and hit the left wing. This occurred 80 seconds into the flight. At that time the insulation would have been traveling many hundreds of miles an hour as well as being frozen. A review of the incident by NASA over the next 24-48 hours indicated no safety concerns.

An engineering group was set up to further review the incident and their report was available two days before the shuttle landing. In it, the group reported that there was probably a 30 inch by 7 inch gash in the tiles on the left wing and this would likely cause some turbulence problems and heat problems during landing.

More above as it develops.