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May 7, 2003

John Ira Petty
Johnson Space Center, TX
(281) 483-5111

Report #J03-35

COLUMBIA RECOVERY OFFICE UP AND RUNNING AT JSC

The Columbia Recovery Office (CRO) has been established at Johnson
Space Center in Houston to continue coordination of shuttle debris
recovery efforts. The CRO has assumed the responsibilities of the
Disaster Field Office (DFO) in Lufkin, Texas. 

The DFO has been operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
That office will close on May 10.  FEMA turned over responsibility
for future recovery operations to NASA on April 30. 

"Our purpose is to follow on from the field activities," said Dave
Whittle, chairman of the NASA Mishap Investigation Team and head of
the CRO. "We need a way to respond to calls that continue to report
debris.  Also, we are managing some searches to the west - in New
Mexico, Nevada, and Utah." 

The CRO is adjacent to Johnson Space Center's Emergency Operations
Center, a 24-hour-a-day operation.  Calls to the toll free Columbia
Shuttle Material number, (866) 446-6603, will be answered 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week.  Information will be forwarded to the CRO where
one of the half-dozen staffers who work business hours will take the
report. They might send a responder, perhaps firefighters or local
law enforcement officials, to look at the object and perhaps request
electronic photos be sent to the CRO. 

The office can arrange for larger or potentially hazardous shuttle
debris to be picked up.  The CRO might ask finders to overnight
smaller, non-hazardous objects to the office. 

The CRO opened its doors April 28.  It was a parallel operation with
Lufkin for the first three days.  It will remain in operation as long
as call volume warrants. 

Whittle has been involved in debris recovery since the day of the
accident, often, like colleagues, working seven-day weeks and 12- to
14-hour days.  He said the operation of multiple agencies and
communities in the recovery effort can be used as a model for any
future large effort involving numerous entities. 

"The recovery effort has been unbelievable.  It has been the largest
recovery effort ever attempted in this country, involving over 200
federal, state and local agencies," Whittle said. "It has become the
example of how all those agencies can work together to a single
purpose." 

The transition from a Lufkin-based operation to JSC went very
smoothly, he said.

"The CRO is our way to make sure that no calls go unanswered,"
Whittle said. The office also will operate the Shuttle Interagency
Debris Database, provide for data management and retention of
records, help with mapping and continue claims processing. 

For more information about NASA, the Columbia accident investigation
and human spaceflight on the Internet, visit: 

http:www.nasa.gov

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