Feb 06, 2003
No e-mail or photos, NASA says
BY A.J. HOSTETLER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
NASA says there is no e-mail from astronaut David Brown to his brother describing concerns from the shuttle crew over possible damage to Columbia's left wing, nor did the crew take photos of the area.
In response to televised comments made by Sen. George Allen about a con- versation Tuesday with the astronaut's brother, NASA broke its usual practice and read the exchange of e-mails between the Browns, said agency spokesman Bob Jacobs.
Attempts by The Times-Dispatch to reach the family were unsuccessful. Jacobs said a NASA official spoke with a family member yesterday.
In his remarks, Allen described a telephone conversation with Doug Brown, whose brother, an Arlington County native, was a mission specialist on the shuttle. Allen, R-Va., serves on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and its subcommittee that oversees that National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Allen's office said yesterday that the senator had nothing to add to his statement that the Columbia crew photographed the left wing, which was struck shortly after launch by a piece of foam insulation that fell from one of the shuttle's external fuel tanks.
NASA says no such e-mail or photos exist.
"We have inspected the commercial communications record twice. We can find no instances of concern being expressed by David Brown," Jacobs said. "We have talked with the family. The family confirmed the conversation with the senator but could not recall any reference to any concern being expressed by the crew for their safety."
The family also could not recall anything written about photographs of the left wing, according to Jacobs. He said he could not identify the NASA official or the family member who spoke yesterday.
"Crews take lots of photos" of each other for personal use and for their work, Jacobs said.
E-mails from shuttle astronauts are considered personal property and are not usually read by NASA officials, "but under the circumstances, any potential information related to the accident has to be examined," Jacobs said.
NASA engineers confirmed that the area of the wing hit by falling debris soon after launch could not have been viewed or photographed from within the crew compartment, Jacobs said.
Suspicion over the cause of the disaster has focused on the falling debris. NASA engineers say it could have damaged the thermal tiles that protect the shuttle upon re-entry. Columbia was just minutes from landing when, speeding at more than 12,000 mph high over Texas, it broke up.
NASA engineers did not realize that the foam had struck the underside of Columbia's left wing until the day after the Jan. 16 launch, when they were watching videotapes and photographs of the liftoff. Initially, they determined that the strike would not pose a threat, but now they are reconsidering whether it might have damaged the craft.
Crew members were told about the insulation during the mission, according to NASA, but they were not alarmed by the falling debris, which had occurred on earlier missions.
"Throughout the flight, the crew were made aware of the knowledge," said Michael C. Kostelnik, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the shuttle program.
"It would not be unrealistic to expect that the crews were relating [to friends or family] that there was an issue, an anomaly on the flight, and that the engineers were looking at it. And my assumption would be that the crew accepted it in the same way," Kostelnik said yesterday.
NASA said any family members or friends of the crew who did receive e-mails relaying concerns about the left wing should contact the space agency, whose administrator was to brief senators yesterday in Washington.
In his remarks from the Senate floor Tuesday, Allen said Doug Brown told him about David Brown's concerns regarding the foam insulation.
"They communicated by e-mail when he was up in space, [that David Brown] had actually taken photographs of that wing because they were concerned about it," Allen said Tuesday. "And I said, 'Did those photographs get back? And he said, 'No, they didn't.'"
RTD 