[meteorite-list] NASA: Columbia Debris Will Be Available For Researchers

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:08 2004
Message-ID: <200304142158.OAA03108_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Here's an opportunity to do research on objects travelling
at hypervelocity speeds through the Earth's atmosphere.

Ron Baalke

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http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20030414&Category=APN&ArtNo=304140892&Ref=AR

NASA: Columbia debris will be available for researchers
The Associated Press
April 14, 2003

Debris from the shredded space shuttle Columbia will be made available to
qualified researchers after the official investigation into the tragedy
ends, NASA officials said Monday.

"We're going to learn from Columbia," said Michael Leinbach, chairman of the
Columbia reconstruction team. "This is the legacy we're going to leave the
STS-107 crew and their families."

Leinbach envisioned the wreckage being studied by researchers interested in
hypersonic re-entry, spacecraft design and flight crew systems.

Columbia broke up over Texas during re-entry on Feb. 1, killing all seven
astronauts aboard. The disaster's cause is undetermined, but investigators
are looking into whether a chunk of foam from the craft's external tank may
have hit and damaged thermal protection materials on the left wing during
the launch 16 days before.

Wreckage from the shuttle was scattered over east Texas and Louisiana.
Searchers on the ground have recovered more than 32 percent of Columbia, and
debris continues to found at a rate of hundreds of pieces per day.

NASA expects to ultimately collect 40 percent of the craft; the remaining
pieces either burned up as they fell to earth, are too small or have fallen
in places where they are not likely to be found.

Leinbach said the criteria for loaning pieces will be similar that of the
moon rocks brought back to earth by the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972.

A research facility will put in an application for specific pieces and the
purpose for the research. After NASA checks the validity of the request, the
researcher will be lent the piece for a specified time.

It is hoped that the research will lead to better spacecraft designs. The
only other accident involving a vehicle traveling more than five times the
speed of sound was an X-15 crash in 1967 that killed its pilot.

"We're going to learn from this tragedy instead of just putting it in a
silo," Leinbach said.

The pieces from the space shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986 were put into
an abandoned missile silo at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Apollo 1
capsule, in which three astronauts died in a launch pad fire in 1967, is in
storage at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

Leinbach said there is discussion of allowing parts of Colombia to be lent
for display in museums.

"That concept has been kicked around and we're not opposed to it," he said.
"Study, for sure; display, I'm not sure yet. Maybe, I don't know."
Received on Mon 14 Apr 2003 05:58:09 PM PDT