The search for materials from the Space Shuttle
Columbia accident is entering a new phase. NASA is
consolidating two of the primary search coordination field
offices and establishing four incident command posts and
base camps.
The search is intensifying based on initial success with
grid-search techniques, and because spring vegetation growth
is expected to make recovery efforts more difficult.
Immediately after the accident, NASA established several
different local command and coordination field offices at
Barksdale Air Force Base at Shreveport, La., the Lufkin
Emergency Operations Center in Lufkin, Texas, and Naval Air
Station, Joint Reserve Base (Carswell Field), Fort Worth,
Texas. The Lufkin, Barksdale and Carswell operations will be
consolidated at Lufkin this week.
The consolidation at Lufkin is designed for better
coordination of search and recovery operations. Barksdale
will continue to be the receiving and shipping point for
Columbia materials being sent to NASA-s Kennedy Space Center
in Florida for final identification.
Four interagency command posts and base camps are being
established in Corsicana, Hemphill, Nacogdoches and
Palestine, Texas, to direct intensified ground searches.
Inter-agency management teams are being deployed to the
camps to conduct searches. Up to 3,500 searchers, made up of
personnel from a variety of federal and state land
management agencies, and fire departments, will operate out
of the camps under a management structure typically used in
support of wildfires. Teams of approximately 20 trained
wilderness firefighters will operate out of the camps, and
each team will conduct grid searches.
In addition, air search assets are being increased to 35
helicopters. The helicopters, provided by land management
agencies and the 3,500 searchers will be working in an area
that is 240 miles long. The area runs from Ellis County,
south of Dallas, to Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Texas-
Louisiana border. Air searches will concentrate on a 10-
mile-wide corridor five miles on either side of that line.
Ground searches will concentrate on a four-mile-wide
corridor two miles on either side of that line. Air searches
will be conducted from Lufkin and Palestine, Texas.
The U.S. Navy is continuing to manage water recovery
operations in East Texas reservoirs, including Lake
Nacogdoches and Toledo Bend Reservoir. The underwater search
is using side-scanning sonar and dive teams from the Navy
and other organizations.
NASA continues to encourage citizens to report finding any
materials suspected to be materials from the Columbia
accident. Citizens are reminded Shuttle materials may not
look like typical aircraft components. Pictures of examples
of Shuttle debris may be viewed at the following website:
www.nasa.gov/columbia/COL_debris_pix.html
Anyone who discovers material suspected to be from the
accident is urged to avoid contact, because it may be
hazardous as a result of toxic propellants aboard the
Shuttle.
Telephone debris reports should be made by calling, toll-
free:
1-866-446-6603
Text reports and images should be e-mailed to:
columbiaimages@nasa.gov
All debris is U.S. Government property and is critical to
the investigation of the mishap. All debris from the
accident should be left in place and reported to Government
authorities. Unauthorized persons found in possession of
accident debris will be prosecuted to the full extent of the
law.
