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  Nasa blamed for Columbia shuttle disaster
Updated 26 August 2003, 17.30
Columbia space shuttle debris
The US space agency Nasa has been partly blamed for the Columbia shuttle disaster.

Columbia fell apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 1 February 2003, killing its crew of seven astronauts.

Foam insulation had peeled off and hit a wing, breaking a heat shield.

A group of independent people have been investigating how that could have happened.

Now they say problems in the way Nasa is run were to blame.

'It could happen again'

The tragic crew of Space shuttle Columbia
They say money wasn't always spent when it was needed and safety wasn't good enough.

Dr Logsden, one of the investigators, said Nasa hadn't learnt enough from the Challenger accident in 1986.

And Dr Roger Launius, who was a Nasa historian, said foam had been falling off the shuttle for years but it was ignored.

And they said if things didn't change there could be other accidents.

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