This Echo is READ ONLY !   NO Un-Authorized Messages Please!
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Glenn Mahone/Bob Jacobs
Headquarters, Washington                    Feb. 18, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

Steve Nesbitt
Columbia Accident Investigation Board
(Phone: 713/301-9571)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N03-019

SPACE SHUTTLE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BOARD CHARTER AMENDED

     The NASA charter for the independent panel in charge of the Space 
Shuttle Columbia accident investigation has been amended. The changes 
allow the Space Shuttle Accident Investigation Board additional 
flexibility in acquiring support staff and expertise outside of NASA.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has indicated the charter will 
continue to be updated as necessary to ensure the panel, which is 
known as the Gehman Board, remains independent during the course of 
the investigation.

On Saturday, Admiral Harold W. Gehman, Jr., announced the addition of 
Dr. Shelia Widnall of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
Cambridge, Mass., to the panel. Dr. Widnall, former Secretary of the 
Air Force from 1993 to 1997, is a world-renowned expert in aircraft 
turbulence and spiraling airflows. She will begin meeting with the 
other members of the Gehman Board Thursday, Feb. 20, in Houston.

An updated copy of the board's charter and letter from the NASA 
Administrator is on the Internet at www.nasa.gov. 

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