STS-107 MCC Status Report #24<br /><br />STS-107<br />Report #24<br />Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003 - 7:00 p.m. CST<br />Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas<br /><br />The independent board charged with determining what caused the destruction<br />of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the loss of its seven astronauts began its<br />work today at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. Recovery teams continued to<br />search for debris from California to Louisiana.<br /><br />Under the leadership of retired Navy admiral Harold Gehman, Jr., the<br />Columbia Accident Board received a briefing from Shuttle Program Manager Ron<br />Dittemore. The board began the process of gathering material collected since<br />Columbia's breakup during reentry just 16 minutes before landing on Feb 1.<br /><br />NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe reaffirmed the Board will act as a<br />"totally independent entity in assessing all of the factors"<br />associated with Columbia's loss. Administrator O'Keefe added, "We will<br />be guided by the findings of the Board."<br /><br />As search teams looked for debris for hundreds of miles throughout the west,<br />the southwest and the Gulf Coast, O'Keefe said he met with the International<br />Space Station Partners today following the memorial ceremony for Columbia's<br />astronauts at Washington's National Cathedral attended by Vice-President<br />Cheney. O'Keefe said the Partners expressed their support for the recovery<br />effort and NASA's vow to find the cause for the accident for the resumption<br />of safe flight operations.<br /><br />O'Keefe indicated that Admiral Gehman may consider adding another member or<br />members to the Independent Board that have no affiliation or ties to NASA in<br />further strengthening its charter. The Charter is available on line at:<br />http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/board_documents.pdf<br /><br />O'Keefe will appear before a joint hearing of the Senate and House Science<br />Committees, Wednesday, Feb. 12, to provide details of the progress of the<br />investigation.<br /><br />In his afternoon briefing, Dittemore described the pace of the inquiry and<br />data and debris collection as "fast and furious." He said the<br />Shuttle program would support Admiral Gehman's Board "in any way we<br />can".<br /><br />Dittemore said more than 1000 pieces of Shuttle debris have been recovered.<br />Items found as far west as California are currently being analyzed to see<br />whether they are from Columbia. As of today, no debris found west of Fort<br />Worth, Texas, has been positively identified as coming from Columbia.<br /><br />"No possibility is being ruled out as the root cause for Columbia's<br />loss," Dittemore said. "We are still looking for that elusive<br />missing link." Dittemore said bad weather in the west today hampered<br />efforts to recover additional debris. The forecast calls for improving<br />conditions by the weekend.<br /><br />The recovered debris will be analyzed at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.,<br />before being returned to the Kennedy Space Center for reconstruction of<br />Columbia, to the extent possible, and final disposition.<br /><br />Dittemore added a fault tree is being developed, based on existing<br />Probability Risk Assessments. He said the investigation team has received a<br />large number of still images and video, which are being examined to<br />determine if they are authentic and if they can shed light on the<br />investigation.<br /><br />At the memorial service at National Cathedral, Cheney said of Columbia's<br />astronauts, "They were soldiers and scientists and doctors and pilots,<br />but above all they were explorers." "They were envoys to the<br />unknown," Cheney added. "They advanced human understanding by<br />showing human courage."<br /><br />Aboard the Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer<br />Nikolai Budarin and NASA Science Officer Don Pettit continued to unload the<br />Russian Progress resupply ship that docked Tuesday.<br /><br />Payload controllers continued to analyze the new power components installed<br />yesterday in the Microgravity Science Glovebox in the Destiny laboratory to<br />try to determine why a circuit breaker popped after it was powered on by<br />Pettit. The science facility remains off while the troubleshooting effort is<br />underway.<br /><br />On Friday, a memorial ceremony for Columbia's astronauts will be held at the<br />Kennedy Space Center. Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Administrator O'Keefe and<br />former astronaut Robert Crippen, Columbia's first pilot on STS-1, April 12,<br />1981, will attend. The ceremony will be live on NASA Television at 8:15 a.m.<br />EST, the exact time of Columbia's deorbit burn last Saturday.<br /><br />The next STS-107 Accident Response briefings will be on Friday at 4:30 p.m.<br />EST from the Johnson Space Center. It will be on NASA TV, with multi-center<br />question and answer capability for reporters at NASA centers.<br /><br />NASA TV is on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization at 85 degrees<br />west longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.