NASA recovers shuttle wing section
Posted on 02/07/2003 1:44:28 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
NASA recovers shuttle wing section
02/07/2003
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - NASA said Friday it has found an important piece of one of Columbia's wings and was removing it to a collection site in Fort Worth.
NASA spaceflight office deputy Michael Kostelnik called it "a significant recovery."
"We do have a large piece of one of the wings. It's not clear which wing this is, but obviously given the (unusual instrument readings) we have on the descent coming through the left wing, obviously this structure is very important."
The wing piece was being taken to a military installation in Fort Worth.
Kostelnik said the debris was found in the Fort Worth area. He said NASA believes there is "a substantial amount of material" around Fort Worth and 150 miles to the west and northwest. He said NASA was seeking additional radar information from the National Transportation Safety Board to aid the search.
NASA has small teams in Western states checking on reports of debris, he said. Because of the vast terrain involved, searchers were depending on the public to guide searchers to credible reports of shuttle debris, he said.
Searchers in East Texas found computer components believed to be from the space shuttle, which broke apart Feb. 1 in the skies over Texas. Officers were also answering calls about the amnesty period that allows for a no-strings-attached return of debris.
Thursday's cold, rainy weather slowed the work of the hundreds of searchers trying to find pieces of the shuttle that disintegrated over Texas on Saturday, killing seven astronauts.
"We have not pulled back. We still have all of the forces out in the field," said Nacogdoches County Judge Sue Kennedy, who is also director of the Nacogdoches County Emergency Management. "We will move things a little bit slower because of the weather."
Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss displayed a mason jar containing a swatch of cloth believed to be from the shuttle, an example of something turned in under the amnesty program.
"We did not challenge them as to why they might have had this in their possession," Kerss said. He also showed several other indistinguishable small items that were brought in.
Kerss said searchers on Thursday found 10 pieces of computer components, believed to be from the shuttle, near Chireno, about halfway between Nacogdoches and San Augustine. Several had visible serial numbers.
But there were no reports of major findings that would shed light on the shuttle's disintegration.
"We're still looking for that elusive missing link," said shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore. The search was expanded to California and Arizona.
Kerss said the number of calls about amnesty increased to about a call a minute Thursday night after newscasts about the program.
He said calls included questions like: "For sure if we bring this down you're not going to arrest us?" or "How do we go about turning this in."
"One of the callers asked what does amnesty mean," Kerss said.
Authorities said several people had turned in items since two federal prosecutors announced the amnesty period through 5 p.m. CST Friday. In Nacogdoches County, for instance, 17 people had turned in about 75 pieces of debris in Nacogdoches County by Thursday evening, Kerss said.
Sabine County Sheriff Tommy Maddox said people answering the amnesty call were bringing in everything from tiny items to pieces 15 to 20 feet long.
On Wednesday, two people were charged with stealing government property - a circuit board and thermal insulating fabric from the shuttle.
Late Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said residents in seven West Texas counties - Throckmorton, Shackelford, Stephens, Young, Palo Pinto, Hood and Erath - should be on the lookout for possible shuttle debris and report it to local authorities.
"We now have indications based on a refined data analysis that there is a strong potential that material may have fallen in these counties," said Dave Steitz of NASA.
Sonar scanning of a lake along the Texas-Louisiana border detected "three potential spots" that could contain shuttle debris, a search spokesman said.
David Bary, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, said divers returned to the reservoir on Thursday to look at the three spots. However, the divers with the FBI and the Department of Public Safety were unable to try to retrieve any debris, officials said.
Divers were planning to make another attempt Friday, weather permitting.
Kerss said about half of the 965 debris sites in the county have been cleared.
Authorities gave no precise count for the pieces of debris that searchers have found. Earlier, they put the number at more than 12,000.
"We stopped counting. It just doesn't serve any purpose to keep doing that," Bary said.
Kim Pease of FEMA said 115 items have been collected in Louisiana. And the EPA has collected 1,106 items of material from the Lufkin area.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, 33 NASA/EPA teams have looked at 27 sites and recovered 47 pieces of material.
The debris, including about 1,000 pieces already on the way to Barksdale, will be "laid out for viewing and inspection" by officials, then taken to Kennedy Space Center to be reconstructed, Dittemore said.
Is Fort Worth significantly north or south of the Columbia's ground track? That might tell us which wing it is...
They will be able to tell which wing it was if they recovered enough pieces.
Somewhat to the north. However, the article only says the debris was found in the "Fort Worth area." That covers a lot of territory.
That morning in Arlington, Texas, I was in the east by northeast section of town and did not hear any sonic booms. My wife was at home six miles west of my point and had a house shaking boom. An other friend 10 miles east-south east heard the sound barrier broken.
Is there a correlation to sonic booms and Columbia debris? Is mass a function of the sound? Would each partical of debris breaking the sound barrier be relative of the mass of the item to the volume created? Distance of travel of the sonic boom relative of the mass?
But just imagine
if they realized as soon
as they hit orbit
that there might be big
damage! They may have all known
for the whole mission
that their chances for
a successful re-entry
were questionable.
(I still can't believe
the military doesn't
have some black ops thing
that could have gone up,
transfered over the crew and
brought them down safely.)
You've been watching too much "Stargate SG-1."
Dang fingers.
That would be true, late in the day. If someone had moved fast that morning, it was a cold morning and space debris hot enough to burn the foolish, they would have a good resource now.
that could have gone up, transfered over the crew and brought them down safely.)
That would be a spare shuttle.
This blows to hell all the conspiracy theories involving the mysterious 'black shuttle'. I've heard the Enterprise is still in the assembly building and according to NASA, couldn't be prepped, moved to the tower and launched in time to make a difference. Seems like they could pack in a few dozen MREs for contingencies.
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