Washington: Investigation of data received during the final moments of space shuttle Columbia reveal that astronauts may have tried to gain control of the spacecraft from the autopilot seconds before it disintegrated midair in February.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board is closely analysing data transmitted by the shuttle in the final 32 seconds of the flight to reconstruct what went wrong during the re-entry.

However, Board officials point out that the data is too scrambled and the information revealed could be inaccurate.

On March 9 evening, ABC News reported that the data showed that the shuttle crew may have tried to take over the space shuttle before its disintegration, a tragedy that killed Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts.

"We really don't know what it means. It's tough to draw conclusions, a NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) spokesperson said, adding, "The error rate in the data is too high."

NASA said that the possible attempt to take control could have been unintentional.

During a normal descent, the flight commander does not override the autopilot till the spacecraft begins approaching the runway.

The data being studied was received after the spacecraft lost contact with the mission control and was too distorted for the computers to detect.

Investigators believe that a puncture in the left wing allowed hot gases to enter the spacecraft, resulting in its disintegration.

PTI