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Part of shuttle wing, a key area, is found NASA downplays Air Force photos By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff, 2/8/2003
It was unclear yesterday which side of the shuttle the 2-foot-long wing section came from, but it was recovered at the far western edge of the known debris field, suggesting the piece fell off the Columbia early in its midair disintegration. Meanwhile, National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials downplayed the importance of US Air Force surveillance photographs that Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine claimed showed ample evidence of significant damage to the left wing.
Ron Dittemore, shuttle program manager, said the fuzzy black images taken as the Columbia flew over California were ''not very revealing.'' One of the US space program's most trying weeks in 17 years ended on a somewhat discordant note yesterday, with Dittemore expressing frustration with media coverage that he characterized as overly speculative. ''Now, there is not a lot of new information for me to report to you,'' he told reporters at Johnson Space Center in Houston, saying the investigation was now in the ''tedious phase of review, re-review . . . It's just going to be a painstaking process.'' The possibility that hardened-foam insulation shaken loose during take-off damaged the left wing remains the sole crash theory NASA has publicly offered. But Dittemore repeatedly stressed yesterday that numerous scenarios were under consideration, without elaborating. NASA is focused on ''fault tree'' analysis, in which a wide array of technical details from all parts of the shuttle are examined for clues. Yesterday's wing find was the first major piece of hard evidence uncovered. It consisted of a 26- to 27-inch-long piece of heat-resistant carbon tile from the front edge of one of Columbia's wings, with 18 inches of the underlying wing attached. The carbon tiles protect the shuttle during its descent into Earth's atmosphere, and specialists have speculated that tile damage may have triggered the crash. ''This structure is very important,'' said Michael Kostelnik, a deputy associate NASA administrator. Search teams found the fragment near Fort Worth, on the westernmost edge of the shuttle debris field, where investigators believe the earliest wreckage from the Columbia's midair disintegration landed. This debris might hold clues about the first seconds of the disaster. NASA has received more than 500 debris reports from points to the west in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, but none have been confirmed. Also, dozens of amateur photos and videos are under analysis. But the most discussed image to date -- high-resolution images from powerful ground-based US Air Force cameras -- was discounted. Dittemore showed reporters a hazy photo and said, ''It's not clear to me there's something there yet.'' He added that NASA technicians were studying the image, saying, ''It's just part of our sweep of information that we're going to pore over.'' The inquiry is focused on the shuttle's left wing, where a series of rapid-fire equipment failures -- temperature and tire pressure gauges suddenly shutting off -- and quick, 30- to 60-degree temperature spikes were recorded by Mission Control during the Columbia's final eight minutes. Yesterday, Dittemore suggested an underlying failure in electronic circuitry may have been at the root of all the problems. He displayed a shuttle wing graphic that illustrated how a single bundle of circuits supplied power to many of the instruments that failed. ''We're trying to develop an understanding of a pattern'' behind the equipment failures, Dittemore said. ''Maybe that wire bundle is a connecting link, and so we need to examine that.'' NASA officials have not eliminated the possibility that hardened-foam debris from the shuttle's external tank slammed into the shuttle's left wing during takeoff. The shuttle was attached to the massive external tank as it took off from Kennedy Space Center, and video shows a small piece of debris from the tank hitting the left wing. NASA officials said foam impact tests were being conducted using a tank virtually identical to the one Columbia used, made at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The foam impact theory dominated news early in the week, then was downplayed Thursday by NASA officials. Yesterday, Dittemore said, the theory was ''still in our job jar . . . I don't think we've reversed direction on our activity.'' But testing that theory will be painstaking: an extensive list of mechanical tests must be performed. Media coverage of the foam theory clearly caused Dittemore, NASA's public face during the probe, some consternation. It was reported as the prime crash theory early in the week, then dismissed, then revived. Dittemore said extensive discussion of the foam theory during press briefings mistakenly established its prominence in the first place. To prevent further misunderstanding, Dittemore said NASA would no longer hold daily press briefings. ''We have been, in my opinion, as open as we can with you,'' he told reporters. ''We have revealed to you data that even we don't understand . . . typically you never see this process.'' Dittemore's decision ended a week of openness strikingly different from NASA's closed-mouthed approach following the space shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986. Thursday, the probe was taken over by a non-NASA panel led by the former Navy admiral that ran the 2000 investigation of the USS Cole terrorist bombing. That panel will handle future public announcements. ''This has been a tremendously long week for all of us,'' said Dittemore. Raja Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com.
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 2/8/2003.
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earch teams near Fort Worth, Texas, found a fragment of the space shuttle Columbia's wing yesterday, a significant discovery that may aid NASA officials' attempt to trace the cause of the vessel's fatal descent to troubles with its left wing.
