As the search of more than 500,000 acres of primary recovery
area for Space Shuttle Columbia material reached its halfway
mark, NASA Administrator, Sean O’Keefe, visited key sites in
east Texas to thank recovery crews for their diligence and
hard work.
“The outstanding interagency cooperation, and the hard work
of all the individuals working on recovery, has been truly
gratifying and inspiring,” Administrator O’Keefe said.
“There has been an untiring, fulltime, and dedicated effort
to recover Columbia material. The great recovery work
directly supports the efforts of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board to determine what caused the Shuttle
mishap”, he said. On Monday Administrator O’Keefe and
Associate Administer for Space Flight, William F. Readdy
visited the Lufkin Command Center, Nacogdoches Base Camp,
and Toledo Bend Reservoir Dive Site.
Approximately 4500 ground searchers have covered
approximately 56 percent of the planned 555,000-acre search
area. The air search has covered approximately 74 percent of
604, four-square nautical mile grids; and, on water,
searchers have scanned about 81 percent of a planned 14.7
square nautical mile area. The search should be completed
within four to six weeks, weather permitting. Searches
farther west, along Columbia’s ground track, likely will
take additional time, because of the great area involved.
About 25 percent of the Shuttle Columbia, by weight, has
been delivered to the collection hangar at Kennedy Space
Center (KSC), Fla. More is en route from the searched area
in eastern Texas and western Louisiana to KSC.
Last Wednesday’s recovery of the Orbiter Experiment Support
System recorder (OEX) is potentially significant, and search
coordinators hope to recover additional critical items. “We
are extremely excited with the recent discovery of this
recorder, and we want to thank the other agencies and
communities for their support,” said Allen Flynt, NASA
Oversight Manager at the Lufkin Command Center. “But we
remain dedicated to our goal of bringing home as much of
Columbia as possible. We remain focused on the recovery
effort, which continues at full strength, ” he said.
Some of the top priorities of NASA, and its local, state and
federal partners, are to recover or clean up potentially
hazardous materials and ensure the public’s safety. The
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has
responsibility for the overall disaster response effort. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tasked with
collecting and delivering recovered Shuttle material to NASA
and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). The
U.S. Forest Service and Texas Forest Service are
coordinating the land and air search. The U.S. Navy is
managing water search activities.
“We still have an obligation to the residents of Texas and
Louisiana, as well as any other state that may contain
Columbia material, to recover all known material and leave
the land as it was prior to Feb. 1. Our obligation also
extends to providing all public assistance funds to eligible
applicants, and we’ll satisfy all those obligations before
closing down,” said FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Scott
Wells.
All of these organizations are continuing to encourage local
residents to report any possible Shuttle materials to the
toll-free hotline at the Lufkin Command Center at:
1/866/446-6603
For more information about NASA and the Space Shuttle
Columbia accident investigation on the Internet, visit:
