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STS-107
Report #23 
Wednesday, February 5, 2003 - 7:00 p.m. CST 
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 

The search for clues about what caused Columbia's breakup during
reentry Saturday, and the hunt for key debris from the orbiter,
expanded today with recovery teams deployed in California and Arizona.

Four days after Columbia broke apart 16 minutes prior to landing,
Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore said the inquiry into the
cause for Columbia's demise is "picking up speed". But Dittemore said
efforts to draw any new information from an additional 32 seconds of
data acquired by ground computers following the loss of voice
communications with Columbia have so far been unsuccessful. 

In a briefing, Dittemore said the engineering evaluation teams are
focusing their attention on "something other" than insulating foam on
Columbia's external tank that fell off 80 seconds after launch
striking the left wing, as the reason for the accident. 

"It does not make sense that a piece of (foam) debris caused the loss
of Columbia and its crew," Dittemore added. He reiterated Columbia
tried to compensate for increased drag on its left wing in the seconds 
prior to its breakup, firing steering jets to right itself.  But 
Dittemore said of Columbia, "It was doing well, but it was losing the 
battle." 

As the engineering analysis continued, the remains of Columbia's
astronauts were flown to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, where
identification of the astronauts will be completed. At the conclusion
of the forensic analysis, the remains will be released to the families 
for burial. 

Dittemore mentioned that three reports dealing with Space Shuttle 
thermal protection tiles were available for review by the news media. 
Two of those documents are available via the Internet. The third is 
available in hardcopy from the JSC newsroom. The titles and website 
addresses for that information are:

RISK MANAGEMENT FOR THE TILES OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE - 1994

http://www.informs.org/Press/SpaceShuttle.pdf


STS-87 POST-FLIGHT INSPECTION - 1997

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/journals/space/katnik/sts87
-12-23.html

In an earlier briefing, Michael Kostelnik, NASA's Associate
Administrator for International Space Station and Space Shuttle, said
the recovery operations are moving ahead "full steam", involving 2500
people nationwide from federal and local agencies. Kostelnik said NASA 
has added a task force to integrate the work between numerous
engineering teams that are reviewing over Columbia's data and the
Columbia Accident Review board, chaired by retired Navy Admiral Harold 
Gehman, Jr. 

Kostelnik said that although a relatively small percentage of Shuttle
debris has been recovered so far, segments of large components such as 
Columbia's nose cone and main engines have been found. The focus of 
the recovery effort and the data analysis, according to Kostelnik,
continues to be Columbia's left wing area, although no element of the
orbiter has been exonerated in the ongoing inquiry.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken
Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer 
Don Pettit spent the day unloading the Russian Progress resupply ship 
that docked to the ISS Tuesday, carrying one ton of food, fuel and 
supplies. 

Pettit unstowed replacement parts for the Microgravity Science
Glovebox from the Progress and installed them in the facility in the
Destiny laboratory in an effort to revive the Glovebox that has been
dormant since November following a power failure.

Pettit powered up the Glovebox, but a circuit breaker in the system
popped and payload controllers told Pettit to shut it down so they can 
evaluate its current status.

On Thursday, NASA Television will broadcast a memorial ceremony for
Columbia's astronauts from National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. at
10:00 a.m. EST.

The next STS-107 Accident Response briefing will be held on Thursday
at 4:30 p.m. EST from the Johnson Space Center, Houston, also on NASA
TV, with multi-center question and answer capability for reporters at
NASA centers. 

NASA TV is on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization at 85
degrees west longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.

Status reports will be issued as developments warrant.

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