Officials thought satellite images would reveal the extent of damage

According to the report, the request was made to Shuttle Programme Manager Ron Dittemore but he turned it down.

The newspaper's source, a senior Nasa official, said the use of satellites would "absolutely" have helped measure damage to the orbiter's heat protective tiles from a debris impact on its wing about 81 seconds after take-off on 16 January.

In another development, US space experts told the BBC that more could have been done to rescue the seven-strong crew of the shuttle who all died when it broke up on re-entry to Earth on 1 February.

When a group of engineers puts forward a request, they're not doing it grins and giggles Nasa official

John Macidull, who worked on the investigation into the 1986 Challenger disaster, told the BBC's Newsnight programme that another shuttle, the Atlantis, was being prepared for launch at the time and could have helped if the early signs of trouble had been acted upon promptly.

Other former space officials told the programme that unmanned supply ships could have been sent up to keep the crew alive in space, and an alternative mode of re-entry could have been employed.

However, the New York Times and other sources stress that even if the extent of tile damage had been fully revealed it is by no means certain that Columbia's crew could have been saved.

Image clues

The Nasa official who spoke on condition of anonymity to the New York Times said the request for spy satellite assistance had been made by Lambert Austin, an engineer working at the Johnson Space Center, on behalf of a group of concerned technicians.

Spy satellites could have been used to obtain images of the heat tiles which cover the outside of the shuttle.

The official told the newspaper that the request had been a serious one:

It is unclear whether anything could have been done to save the crew

"When a group of engineers puts forward a request, they're not doing it grins and giggles. Within their minds, they thought that was a path that would resolve some final concerns."

Shortly after the shuttle disaster, Mr Dittemore said any images procured by reconnaissance satellites might not have been sharp enough.

A spokesman for Nasa, James Hartfield, said that someone at the space agency had made a request to the US Strategic Command for satellite images in the early stages of Columbia's flight, but that the request had later been withdrawn by Roger Simpson, another Nasa employee.

The withdrawal of that request is now part of the Columbia accident investigation.

Foam theory faulty?

The night before Columbia's destruction, engineers expressed fears that damage to the shuttle's wing could cause it to burn off during re-entry.

But the e-mailed memos never went to top-flight directors who had already decided the orbiter was fit for landing.

Some Nasa officials now say it was not foam that hit the shuttle's wing

Nasa investigators have constantly maintained that the falling foam could have caused the kind of damage that led to Columbia's demise.

But the Nasa official speaking to the New York Times said that some Nasa staff now wondered whether the debris could have come from the solid rocket boosters instead.

They are examining any material which may have come loose, including a silicone-based material called superlightweight ablator, used as a heat shield on parts of the booster.