This Echo is READ ONLY !   NO Un-Authorized Messages Please!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Immediate Release
CAIB PA 19-03

Date: April 4, 2003
Contact: Lt. Col Woody Woodyard, 281-283-7520 or 713-301-2244
Contact: Terry N. Williams, 281-283-7565


Columbia Accident Investigation Board Holds Fourth Public Hearing

Houston - The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) will hold
public hearings on Monday, April 7 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. CDT (2 p.m.
to 5 p.m. EDT) and Tuesday, April 8 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. CDT (10
a.m. to 1 a.m. EDT) at the Hilton NASA Clear Lake, 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. On the first day of the hearing,
experts will discuss: Post Flight Analysis, Flight Rules and the
History of Foam Separation on the External Tank. Day two participants
will discuss NASA Safety Issues and the History of Debris Hits on the
Orbiter. Following a brief presentation, the speakers will answer
questions from the Board during the hearing. 

The speakers include: Colonel James Halsell, NASA Astronaut; Bob
Castle, NASA Mission Operations Directorate Chief Engineer; J. Scott
Sparks, Department Lead for External Issues, Marshall Space Flight
Center; Lee Foster, NASA; Richard Blomberg, President, Dunlap and
Associates, Inc.; Dan Bell, Boeing and Gary Grant, Boeing.

ABC is the pool for the hearing. They will broadcast on: Monday,
April 7, Telstar 4 12 D02, 11:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. CDT, Tuesday April
8, Telstar 4 12 D02, 8:45 a.m., - 3:15 p.m. CDT. The coordinates
apply for Tuesday's press conference. Gina Treadgold, Producer, ABC
News is the pool coordinator. She can be reached at: (281) 280-9100,
JSC workspace or (713) 557-4843, cell phone.


The following are brief biographies of the hearing speakers:


Monday, April 7, 2003

Colonel James Donald Halsell, Jr., USAF, is a NASA astronaut. The
five-flight veteran has logged over 1,250 hours in space. He was the
pilot on STS-65 and STS-74. He was mission commander on STS-83,
STS-94 and STS-101. STS-83, the Microgravity Science Laboratory
(MSL-1) Spacelab mission, was cut short because of problems with one
of the Shuttle's three fuel cell power generation units. Mr. Halsell
served as NASA Director of Operations at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut
Training Center, Star City, Russia and Manager, Shuttle Launch
Integration, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. He is assigned to command
the crew of STS-120, which will transport and install the Node 2
module to the International Space Station, marking the completion of
the U.S. core complement. The mission is slated for launch in early
2004. Mr. Halsell received a Master of Science degree in management
from Troy University, a Master of Science degree in space operations
from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science
degree in engineering from the United States Air Force USAF Academy.

Robert Castle Jr., Mission Operations Directorate Chief Engineer, is
the former Deputy Chief of the Flight Director Office for
International Space Station. He is certified as a Space Station
Flight Director and has served as an ISS Flight Director for 3
assembly missions and many weeks of increment operations. As a Flight
Director, he directed more than 25 Space Shuttle missions, including
the first mission to dock with the Mir station, and the first
assembly mission of the International Space Station. Additionally, he
was a communications specialist for 15 Space Shuttle flights and a
mid-level manager of a group of flight controllers. Mr. Castle was
also a "back room" communications specialist for the first shuttle
launch in 1981.

J. Scott (Scotty) Sparks is Department Lead for External Tank Issues.
He participated in External Tank cryoinsulation, at the Marshall
Space Flight Center for more than a decade. He assisted in the
development of Next Generation Launch Technology systems to measure
hydrogen permeability of composite cryotankage materials under cyclic
biaxial loading and cryogenic temperature. Mr. Sparks has a Masters
of Science Degree in Polymers from the Georgia Institute of
Technology and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

Richard D. Blomberg is President of Dunlap and Associates, Inc., one
of the oldest human factors research firms in the world. In this
position, he has directed or been involved in the application of
human engineering and systems analytic principles to aircraft design
and certification, aerospace research, highway safety, product safety
and the design and evaluation of human-computer interfaces. Prior to
this, Mr. Blomberg served as a consultant, member and human factors
specialist on the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration. He was the chair of the Panel
for the last four years of his term. He is a member of the
Transportation Research Board (TRB), The Human Factors and Ergonomics
Society, Society of Automotive Engineers, the Operations Research
Society of America, the Association for Consumer Research, the
Association of Aviation Psychologists and the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics. Mr. Blomberg holds both a Bachelor &
Master of Science in Industrial and Management Engineering from
Columbia University. 

Additional biographies will be posted as they become available.

 - END OF FILE -
==========

@Message posted automagically by IMTHINGS POST 1.30
---