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STS-107 Mishap Response Status Report No 06 
Tuesdsay, Feb. 18, 2003 - 6 p.m. CST 
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 

An external tank virtually identical to the one launched with Space
Shuttle Columbia Jan. 16 has been impounded at Michoud Operations at
New Orleans, retired Adm. Harold W. "Hal" Gehman, chairman of the
Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said today. 

Speaking at a press conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston, he said the external tank, produced just after Columbia's,
would be carefully examined.  He added that during its visit to New
Orleans last week, "we were extraordinarily impressed with what we saw 
at Michoud," in terms of staff and the facility itself.

Gehman was joined at the briefing by three fellow board members, Air
Force Maj. Gen. John Barry, Steven Wallace, director of accident
investigation for the Federal Aviation Administration; and Dr. James
N. Hallock, chief of the Aviation Safety Division of the
Transportation Safety Institute. 

Berry leads the board's group looking at maintenance, material and
management. Wallace heads the group looking at operations, crew
training and life sciences.  Hallock leads the group looking at
engineering and technology evaluation. 

"My job is to coordinate among all these individual investigations,"
Gehman said.  He added that the pace of the investigation is
accelerating rapidly.  He promised that the board's final report would 
put the Columbia accident in the context of the nation's space
program. He added that the first in a series of public hearings on the 
accident would be held next week. 

At the briefing, Gehman said he was open to further expansion of the
investigation board.  The latest addition to the board, Dr. Sheila
Widnall, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty member and
former Secretary of the Air Force, will join the board later this
week. 

Gehman announced the opening of the board's Washington, D.C., office
and the appointment of Thomas L. Carter as board assistant for
government relations. Carter will be the board's independent
representative in Washington.  He will maintain contact with Congress
and Executive Branch organizations. 

Carter is an Air Force Reserve flag officer with more than 10,000
flying hours, mostly as a commercial pilot.  He lives in Charleston,
S.C. 

Anyone wanting to send information to the board by mail can reach them 
at: Columbia Accident Investigation Board, 16850 Saturn Lane, Houston, 
Texas 77058. Gehman also says the board is setting up its own web site 
and 1-800 number to help the public contact them directly.

The search for Columbia debris continues. Gehman thanked volunteers
for their search efforts.  "We still need debris," he said, adding
that collection is very important to the board. He said about 4,000
pieces of debris are at Kennedy Space Center, of which 2,600 have been 
identified, catalogued and are out on the reconstruction hangar floor. 
An additional 10,000 pieces are headed toward Barksdale Air Force Base 
at Shreveport, La., or KSC. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that 77 percent of 
sites in Texas and 99 percent of sites in Louisiana where Shuttle
debris had been reported have been cleared. 

Board member Hallock said it appears that things were beginning to
come off Columbia as it passed over California.  He said that while it 
is important to understand what those pieces were, none has been
found.  As of early Tuesday, the western boundary of the debris field
remained just west of the Fort Worth, Texas, area. 

The Forest Service-led Southern Area Incident Command "Blue Team" has
set up a base camp in Nacogdoches, Texas. The debris search team has
about 350 people and is expected to grow to 650 people during the next 
few days.  Two other teams with about 700 members from NASA and more 
than a dozen other organizations are being deployed to Palestine and 
Hemphill, Texas. The number of searchers is expected to grow to more 
than 2,000 by the end of the week. 

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

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