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Search for shuttle debris yields nothing Plant that built fuel tank probed By Andrew Bridges, Associated Press, 2/16/2003
Investigators also revealed that two more Columbia control jets, making at least four in all, continued to fire in the unsuccessful attempt to stabilize the shuttle during its final minutes. The jets fire automatically when flaps on the shuttle's wings and tail are inadequate to control any abnormal motions encountered at supersonic speeds. The information was coaxed from the final 32 seconds of ragged data sent from Columbia as it was breaking apart, investigators said. The last voice communication from the shuttle's seven astronauts came as Columbia streaked across New Mexico during reentry on Feb. 1 before breaking apart about two minutes later. People near New Mexico's Sandia Mountains, east of Albuquerque, reported hearing a whooshing sound, said Peter Olson, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. He said there also was radar evidence that debris could have fallen there, but he didn't have details.
About 140 searchers concentrated yesterday on a rugged, 2-square-mile area of Embudito Canyon, walking a few feet apart. Nothing was found as teams began wrapping up by afternoon; one picked up a small disc of melted metal that was later identified as part of a beer can. Two helicopters from White Sands Missile Range that crisscrossed the area also came up empty -- except for a sardine can. The Embudito Canyon search was expected to last only a day, but NASA could search elsewhere in the state, officials said. A tile found about 20 miles west of Fort Worth was the farthest point west of any debris found so far, Admiral Harold Gehman Jr., who is heading the now 10-member investigation board, said yesterday. Most of the debris has been found in east Texas, where rain hampered the search again yesterday. Search crews also found a turbopump from the shuttle's 7,000-pound main engine in a crater outside Fort Polk, La., and one of the shuttle's five general purpose computers, though the equipment was badly damaged. ''General purpose computers have no hard drive, so investigators held out little hope of extracting additional information,'' a NASA statement said. The agency has said the computers, which were the brains of Columbia, might contain data that would allow investigators to reconstruct what was occurring aboard the spacecraft. Meanwhile, NASA continued to urged the public to come forward with any photographs or videotapes taken of Columbia from anywhere between Hawaii and Texas. The string of problems detected aboard Columbia began shortly after the shuttle entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
This story ran on page A12 of the Boston Globe on 2/16/2003.
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© Copyright 2003 New York Times Company |
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OUSTON -- The board investigating the Columbia disaster toured the Louisiana plant yesterday where the shuttle's external fuel tank was built, while searchers scouring the mountains of New Mexico -- west of where any debris has been found so far -- were coming up empty.
