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3\15a STS-107 - CAIB Holds Second Public Hearing 
Part 1 of 2

                               Date: March 15, 2003
Contact: Laura Brown, 
 281-283-7565 or 281-467-8657

Contact: Lt. Col Woody Woodyard,
 281-283-7520 or 713-301-2244

Columbia Accident Investigation Board Holds Second Public Hearing
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The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) will hold public 
hearings on Monday, March 17 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. CST (2 p.m. to 5 
p.m. EST) and Tuesday, March 18, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. CST (10 a.m. to 1 
p.m. EST) at the Hilton Houston Clear Lake, 3000 NASA Road One, 
Houston, Texas.

The board's chairman, retired Navy Admiral Harold W. "Hal" Gehman Jr., 
and other board members will hear from individuals who have been asked 
to appear before the board. Experts in reentry debris, aerodynamics 
and thermodynamics will present brief statements and answer questions 
from the board during the hearing.

The speakers include: Dr. William Ailor, Director, Center for Orbital 
and Reentry Debris Studies, The Aerospace Corporation; Robert "Doug" 
White, Director, Operational Requirements, United Space Alliance; Paul 
Hill, Flight Director, Space Shuttle and International Space Station, 
NASA; Stephen Labbe, Chief, Applied Aeroscience and Computational 
Fluid Dynamics Branch, NASA; Christopher Madden, Deputy Chief, Thermal 
Design Branch, NASA; Jose Caram, Aerospace Engineer, Aeroscience and 
Flight Mechanics Division, NASA; Dr. John Bertin, Professor of 
Aeronautics, United States Air Force Academy.

CBS Television is the pool for the hearing. They will broadcast on 
Mon., 1130 - 1630 CST and Tues., 0830 - 1530 CST at AM 5 - Transponder 
5i (digital), uplink freq. - 14170.375h, d/link freq. - 11870v, data - 
5.500000, symbol - 3.978723, fec - 3/4. For questions on these 
coordinates please Contact Marty Gill, CBS South Editor at 
212-975-4114 or Rachel Matza, KU Satellite Coordinator at 212-975-3844 
(11a.m. to 7 p.m.)


The following are brief biographies of the hearing speakers:


MONDAY March 17, 2003 12 noon to 4 p.m.

Dr. William H. Ailor
Director, Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies
 The Aerospace Corporation
Dr. Ailor received a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Purdue 
University and joined the Aerospace Corporation in 1974. He spent 15 
years in the flight mechanics and performance analysis areas, 
conducting analyses on spacecraft reentry and reentry breakup. He 
received a National Aeronautics and Space Administration Group 
Achievement Award in 1992 for advancing understanding of the reentry 
breakup characteristics of the Space Shuttle External Tank. He was 
appointed to his current position when the Center was established in 
June 1997 to study hazards associated with space debris and how 
objects reenter Earth's atmosphere. He served as chair of the ad-hoc 
Reentry Subpanel of the Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel, which 
provides independent assessments to the White House on the safety of 
space missions containing radioactive materials. Missions examined 
under his chairmanship include Galileo, Ulysses, Mars Pathfinder, 
Cassini and Mars Exploration Rover. The Aerospace Corporation, based 
in El Segundo, CA, is an independent, nonprofit company that provides 
objective technical analyses and assessments for national security 
space programs and selected civil and commercial space programs in the 
national interest.

R. Douglas White
Director for Operations Requirements, Orbiter Element Department
 United Space Alliance
Mr. White began work on the space shuttle program in 1979 as an 
employee for Rockwell International in Downey, California. Mr.  White 
has held increasingly responsible positions within the space shuttle 
program focusing on the areas of turnaround test requirements, 
engineering flight support, anomaly resolution, and Orbiter 
certification of flight readiness preparation. Mr. White joined United 
Space Alliance as a director in 1996. Mr. White holds a BS and MS in 
physics from UCLA.

Mr. Paul S. Hill
NASA Space Shuttle and 
 International Space Station Flight Director
Mr. Hill received his Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science 
degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1984 and 
1985, respectively. For the past several years, he has been the NASA 
Space Shuttle and International Space Station Flight Director leading 
the flight control team for flight preparation and execution from 
Mission Control and the Flight Director for 21 Shuttle and ISS 
missions. Prior to his current position, Mr. Hill was the Space 
Station and Space Shuttle operations engineer, Joint Operations Panel 
Chairman. He also served as a Captain in the United States Air Force.


TUESDAY March 18, 2003 9 a.m. to 12 noon

Mr. Joe Caram is an aerospace engineer employed at the NASA Johnson 
Space Center since 1989 working in the Aeroscience and Flight 
Mechanics Division of the Engineering Directorate. He received his 
Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science degrees from Texas A&M 
University in 1986 and 1989, respectively. Until recently, he was 
serving as chief engineer for the feasibility studies of the Orbital 
Space Plane on Expendable Launch Vehicles and X-38 Project, 
Aeroscience and Flight Dynamics, Division Chief Engineer / Flight 
Dynamics Lead. Previous positions at NASA include: Aeroscience Branch 
engineer responsible for development and analysis of aerothermodynamic 
environments of various configurations including the Space Shuttle 
Orbiter. In that position, Mr. Caram was responsible for developing 
math models of the shock-shock interaction heating to the wing leading 
edge of the Orbiter and led a team investigating Orbiter early/ 
asymmetric hypersonic boundary layer transition. Other activities 
during the 1991 to 1995 timeframe included being aerothermodynamics 
team lead in support of advanced projects such as Assured Crew Return 
Vehicle, First Lunar Outpost, Single Launch Core Station, and Liquid 
FlyBack Booster. Mr. Caram is an Associate Fellow of the American 
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and author or co-author of 
20 publications including AIAA conference papers and journal articles 
and Symposia.

Mr. Christopher B. Madden is a 1987 graduate of the University of 
Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aerospace, 
Aeronautics and Astronautics. He completed his Master of Mechanical 
Engineering at the University of Houston in 1993. He has been employed 
by NASA/Johnson Space Center since 1984 where he began as a 
cooperative student in the Thermal Analysis Section. Mr. Madden is 
currently serving as the Deputy Chief of the Thermal Design Branch. 
His previous duties included performing thermal analysis of reentry 
spacecraft thermal protection systems including the Space Shuttle and 
other advanced spacecraft; investigation of Space Shuttle thermal 
anomalies; design and planning of arc-jet tests in support of thermal 
protection system design and analysis; conducting simulations of 
orbital debris reentry, and lead engineer for the X-38 structures team 
including the composite aeroshell and thermal protection system.

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