Posted on 02/08/2003 7:31:14 AM PST by ewing
Columbia Space Shutttle debris found in and around Tarrant County this week may prove to be 'significant' in determining what caused the shuttle disaster, NASA officials said Friday.
A piece of Columbia's wing, considered a key find in the investigation, was reported in the Fort Worth area by NASA. It was unclear however, whether the portion fell near the city or was brought into the area from East Texas, where much of the debris has been found.
'We do have a large piece of one of the wings.' It is not clear which wing this is... Obviously, the structure is very important,' said Michael Kostelnik, a deputy associate NASA administrator.
The wing section was to be stored at a shuttle disaster field office set up in a hangar at the Naval Air Station in West Forth Worth.
(Excerpt) Read more at dfw.com ...
~.^ (raised eyebrow)
NTSB - transportation accident investigation
FBI - crime investigation...
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Large But Puzzling Piece of Columbia Wing Found
By Jack Douglas Jr. and Clarissa Aljentera
Star-Telegram Staff Writers
FORT WORTH - Columbia debris found in and around Tarrant County this week may prove to be "significant" in determining what caused the shuttle disaster, NASA officials said Friday.
A piece of Columbia's wing, considered a key find in the investigation, was reported in the Fort Worth area by NASA. It was unclear, however, whether that portion fell near the city or was brought into the area from East Texas, where much of the Columbia debris has been found.
"We do have a large piece of one of the wings. It's not clear which wing this is. ... Obviously, the structure is very important," said Michael Kostelnik, a deputy associate NASA administrator.
The wing section was to be stored at a shuttle disaster field office set up in a hangar at the Naval Air Station in west Fort Worth.
NASA has focused much of its preliminary investigation on Columbia's left wing, where heat and pressure sensors failed shortly before the shuttle broke up early Saturday, killing the seven astronauts on board.
Since the disaster, NASA and teams with the Environmental Protection Agency have been dispatched to more than two dozen sites in and around Fort Worth-Dallas, bagging 47 pieces of material, including a confirmed section of Columbia tile recovered near Alvarado on Monday.
NASA also has collected a piece of what might be shuttle debris from River Oaks, and authorities -- including state troopers and the FBI -- recovered more undisclosed material on Friday after searching a garage near the Parker County Airport.
"There was a piece of something, nobody knows what. ... The FBI has it," Parker County Sheriff Jay Brown said.
NASA spokeswoman Kylie Moritz in Houston said that the Fort Worth-area finds are significant.
"We think that anything (found) ... largely upstream from where most of the debris is significant," Moritz said. Those finds indicate Columbia began disintegrating much earlier than originally thought, and "may lead to more information about what happened first that led to the breakup of the orbiter," Moritz said.
Debris and videotapes of the Columbia's re-entry also suggest that the craft began to break up even further west, above California and Arizona.
On Thursday, NASA investigators went to River Oaks where they retrieved a black, styrofoam-like piece of material from Brandon Warner's backyard.
"It was as light as a feather," Warner said of the 10-inch-long section. He said it had a jagged edge at the bottom and one side contained a partial series of numbers.
NASA officials and the River Oaks police surveyed his yard and measured coordinates with a Global Positioning system.
Win Henderson, a spokesman with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said it was too early to tell whether the debris was from the shuttle, but that it was important enough to be collected by NASA.
"We would be grateful if it is indeed shuttle matter and is now in NASA's possession," Henderson said.
It was not immediately clear how Columbia's wing section wound up in the area. One unconfirmed report was that it was found earlier in the week near Crowley and the border between Tarrant and Johnson counties.
Parker County authorities, however, said confirmed shuttle debris was collected on Thursday from an Azle man who said NASA had given him permission to bring the material home after he had participated in Columbia search efforts in East Texas.
Parker County Judge Mark Riley said he was told the material taken from Azle was "possibly part of the wing" of the shuttle.
The man, identified as working in the aviation field, was not arrested, officials said.
Staff writer Toni Heinzl contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press.
If you don't like what we do on FR, why are you here?
Because until all the information that can be gathered has been gathered and until a full evaluation has been made it would be stupid to put forth a conclusion. For one thing you don't know what is an original cause or what is an effect of the original cause.
Every single one of those tiles is individually numbered on the wing for analysis, they shoud be able to tell right away..
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