from times:
The Columbia's descent began at 8:15 a.m. over the Indian Ocean, as the four flight computers automatically commanded the two engines of the orbital maneuvering system to fire forward for 2 minutes 38 seconds, slowing the craft by 175 miles an hour.
At 8:45, a half-hour before the scheduled landing, the shuttle entered the the atmosphere, 75 miles up. Now only air could brake its rate of descent. The shuttle made its transition from spacecraft to glider. The thruster jets were turned off, and the computers instructed the wing flaps, or elevons, and other control surfaces to maintain a steady course.
The Columbia was going too fast. At 8:49, it made the first of three planned sweeping S curves, banking right and later left. The roll reversals, as astronauts call them, extend the time the shuttle is in the atmosphere and can be slowed by friction. (according to mission profile this should start at 80,000 feet, not above 100000 feet)
The re-entry deviated at 8:52, as Mr. Dittemore, the manager, outlined. Temperatures to the brake lines showed the odd increase. In the next three minutes, over California, temperatures shot up on the fourth and fifth brake lines. At 8:57, over Arizona and New Mexico, temperatures on the surfaces of the left wing dropped "off scale."
Something seemed seriously wrong, but the troubles were occurring so fast that neither Mission Control nor the astronauts appeared to recognize the peril until too late.
At 8:59, over western Texas, the left wing was in trouble. Something perhaps a rough tile or a missing one or something unsuspected was acting as a drag on the wing. The flight computers responded by commanding the craft by yawing and rolling. It was a desperate effort to keep a steady course, engineers said, and perhaps an excessively stressful experience for the aging airframe. (drag just before it broke up)
some one else pointed me to the mission profile, i can not find it
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