STS-107 Report #19 Saturday, February 1, 2003 - 7:00 p.m. CST Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
In a briefing, Chief Flight Director Milt Heflin said that around 7:53 a.m. CST, just minutes before communications were lost with Columbia, flight controllers detected indications of a loss of hydraulic system temperature measurements associated with Columbia's left wing, followed three minutes later by an increase in temperatures on the left main gear tires and brakes. At 7:58 a.m., flight controllers noted a loss of bondline temperature sensor data in the area of the left wing followed a minute later by a loss of data on tire temperatures and pressures for the left inboard and outboard tires.
It looks like the white flare several of us saw and Tom and I got pictures of corresponds with the "increase in temperatures on the left main gear tires and brakes". Patrick