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STS-107 Mishap Response Status Report #2
Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2003 - 2 p.m. CST

Two trucks containing debris from the space shuttle Columbia arrived 
at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) this morning. They were the first 
bringing debris from Barksdale AFB near Shreveport, La., to KSC where 
investigators will lay them out, about as they were positioned on 
Columbia. 

Members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) arrived at 
KSC about 11 a.m. EST today. The group toured facilities, including 
the Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2, housing the Shuttle Endeavour, 
and Bay 3, where Discovery is undergoing maintenance. The CAIB also 
visited the Vehicle Assembly Building where Shuttle Atlantis, with its 
external tank and solid rocket boosters, is atop its mobile launch 
platform. The CAIB met at intervals throughout the day with KSC 
officials to get an overview of ground processing activities.

On Thursday the board is scheduled to visit the Solid Rocket Booster 
(SRB) Disassembly Facility and tour the SRB assembly and refurbishment 
facilities.  Members also will visit the Launch Control Center and 
Launch Pad 39A, where Columbia was launched.

Retired Navy Admiral Harold Gehman, CAIB chairman, spoke briefly with 
news media representatives.  He said the CAIB wants to look at four 
things at KSC: launch procedures; Shuttle refurbishment between 
flights; the Columbia mishap reconstruction site;  "and be sure in our 
own minds the process here for Columbia reconstruction meets our 
investigatory needs."  The efforts will take place in the Reusable 
Launch Vehicle Hangar located adjacent to the Space Shuttle runway at 
KSC.

Gehman described the trip to KSC as an orientation visit. He said the 
CAIB would return to KSC a number of times during the investigation. 
The CAIB is scheduled to travel to Huntsville, Ala., and then New 
Orleans before returning to Houston Saturday night. Gehman said Sunday 
would be a workday, and that the board would be working seven- or 
six-day weeks "from now on."

More than 2,500 federal, state and local employees continued to search 
for Columbia debris in Texas and Louisiana today. Officials say they 
have the resources to cover every body of water in the debris trail 
within 5 weeks.  While teams continue to investigate reports of debris 
as far west as California, no confirmed pieces of debris from Columbia 
have been found west of the Fort Worth, Texas area. 

Hundreds of items continue to be collected from areas in eastern Texas 
and western Louisiana. Several hundred items were shipped in the past 
24 hours to Barksdale from locations in Lufkin, Nacogdoches and 
Hemphill, Texas. 

The International Space Station's Expedition 6 crew, Commander Ken 
Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA Station Science 
Officer Don Pettit, took time Wednesday for interviews with CNN, ABC, 
CBS and NBC representatives. They talked about their shock and grief 
after being told the morning of Feb. 1 by Johnson Space Center 
Director Jefferson D. Howell Jr. of the loss of Columbia, and their 
willingness to remain aboard the ISS as long as necessary.

For more information about NASA on the Internet, see:
      www.nasa.gov

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