Flatly contradicting his engineers, NASA head Sean O’Keefe said yesterday that he does not accept their premise that nothing could have been done to repair the heat tiles and save the crew of the space shuttle Columbia before it dived into its fiery re-entry from orbit.

Mr. O’Keefe’s comments came as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration released a video showing the last images of the crew, shot as their ship slashed through the upper atmosphere’s super-heated gas, which pulsed like red flashes outside Columbia’s windows.

The footage of the routine flight operations takes on an aura of poignancy because the crew, unlike those who view the tape now, was unaware that within minutes their orbiter would disintegrate more than 60 kilometres above the ground. Toronto Globe and Mail

Related: NASA’s Worst Fears Realized:

Newly disclosed e-mail inside NASA showed senior engineers worried a day before the Columbia disaster that the shuttle’s left wing might burn off and cause the deaths of the crew, a scenario remarkably similar to the one investigators believe actually occurred.

The dozens of pages of e-mail describe a broader, internal debate than previously acknowledged about the seriousness of potential damage to Columbia from a liftoff collision with foam debris from its central fuel tank. Engineers never sent their warnings to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s brass. Wired News