Washington, Feb 23: It is increasingly becoming clear that the Columbia space shuttle disaster in which India-born Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts were killed was highly avoidable, as the ill-fated space craft was beset by glitches, `near-disasters` and deferring of much-needed maintenance, a report said today. "Years before it broke apart in the skies over Texas, the space shuttle Columbia was beset by recurring problems, glitches and close calls," ie, near-disasters, the ‘Washington Post’ said in an investigative report.

In 20 of its 28 missions beginning 1981, Columbia experienced mechanical or technical problems at launch or in orbit. Those problems caused columbia to have more flight delays than any other orbiter, said the report.

The post scribes have gone through thousands of pages of Nasa documents and done interviews for the report.

While nobody is yet sure what caused Columbia`s catastrophic end on february 1, between 1996 and 1999 the orbiter had at least five "escapes"-- Nasa term for a mission that flew with a problem that only "luck of providnce" prevented from causing serious damage.
On another launch, a worker made what Nasa calls a "diving catch," meaning his diligence caught a flaw routine checks had missed.

Bureau Report