I'll take one of these... and maybe some time over Iraq while we're at it. LOL! 
Posted on 02/07/2003 9:59:00 AM PST by NormsRevenge
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
Debris crews found a large section of wing from the space shuttle Columbia that includes the wing's leading edge, though it wasn't clear which side of the shuttle it had be on, NASA (news - web sites) officials announced Friday.
Mike Kostelnik, a deputy associate NASA administrator, called it "a significant recovery."
"We do have a large piece of one of the wings," Kostelnik said. Given the unusual instrument readings coming from the shuttle during its descent moments before it broke up over Texas, particularly readings involving the left wing, "this structure is very important," he said.
The wing piece was being taken to a military installation in Fort Worth.
Searchers scouring East Texas for debris from Columbia also found 10 pieces of computer components on Thursday, and officials reminded residents of an amnesty period through Friday night for anyone who had illegally picked up pieces of the fallen shuttle to return them.
Cold, rainy weather has slowed the work of the hundreds of searchers there. Among the pieces key to the investigation, they are seeking a device that had aboard Columbia that allows communication between the shuttle and NASA controllers to be encrypted.
A NASA spokesman in Houston, John Ira Petty, said NASA feared the technology could be used "to send bogus signals to the shuttle."
"We are searching for all debris. Certainly we would like to recover this one," Petty said.
Investigators have also been checking reports of debris in California and Arizona, but officials said Friday that no shuttle parts had been confirmed west of Texas.
Another area of interest if a reservoir along the Texas-Louisiana line where people had reported seeing large pieces of debris fall and sonar scanning had detected "three potential spots" that could be shuttle parts.
David Bary, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites), said divers returned to the reservoir Thursday but had been unable to retrieve any debris.
Authorities have said more than 12,000 individual pieces of debris had been found. "We stopped counting. It just doesn't serve any purpose to keep doing that," Bary said.
The debris, including about 1,000 pieces already on the way to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, will inspected and then taken to Kennedy Space Center (news - web sites) to be reconstructed officials said.
Federal officials' offer of amnesty through Friday night for people to turn over shuttle debris they had illegally taken has had a strong response.
Sabine County Sheriff Tommy Maddox said people were bringing in everything from tiny items to pieces 15 feet long. Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss said 17 people had turned in about 75 pieces of debris. He displayed a mason jar containing a swatch of cloth believed to be from the shuttle that one person had taken and then turned over.
"We did not challenge them as to why they might have had this in their possession," Kerss said.
On Wednesday, two people were charged with stealing government property — a circuit board and thermal insulating fabric from the shuttle that they had found. They could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
How can you steal government property when first, the government exists only from the agreed consent of the sovereign citizens, second, the debris fell onto their property, and third, the "government property" was originally paid for by the sovereign's collected taxes?
Second, out of common decency you should consider the Columbia is the tomb of seven people. The USS Arizona is worthy of a certain level of repect. So is Columbia. The parts deserve more than to be a centerpiece on a somebody's fireplace mantle.
As for this piece of the wing, a picture I saw earlier showed it coming down on a wooden fence-post, and bent over the wires. Pretty good sized piece, with lots of tile fragments.
Easy they are taking a piece of property of which they own 0.0000001% What about the rights of the other tax payers who paid the other 99.9999999% for that piece of the shuttle? As a taxpayer don't I have a right to know why the shuttle Columbia was destroyed?
I'll take one of these... and maybe some time over Iraq while we're at it. LOL!
How can the government possibly prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that the people knew that these parts were government property?
The ebay auction they had saying "Columbia debris - starting at only 9999.99" would probably be a good start.
Where be the copy editor?
Either they are selling debris from Columbia, or they are committing wire fraud. Either one will send the perpetrator to Leavenworth.
I must be really dumb, because it seems to me that it should be easy to identify a right wing from a left wing just by the shape. What am I missing?
It's a fragment, it's twisted, mangled and burnt. They will eventually figure out which wing it's from but with just a cursory look it's probably not obvious.
Sounds pretty left wing to me. = )
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