Monday, Feb 03, 2003
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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
"The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors,'' a mournful President, George W. Bush, said at the White House. Nothing could have captured the tragic moment better. "The same creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of shuttle Columbia did not return safely to earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.'' But Mr. Bush left no one in doubt of what the future held. "The cause in which they died continues. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.'' Three independent panels will probe the disaster. A panel of experts from the United States Air Force and the Navy, officials from the Transportation Department and other Federal Agencies will constitute one panel. A second will be from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration itself and the third from the U.S. Congress — the Science Committee of the House of Representatives. The shuttle debris is strewn on the ground, over an area of about 120 miles and at least across two States. There were reports of human remains having been recovered in east Texas. A hospital employee was reported to have found a charred torso, thighbone and skull. Two young boys also reportedly found a charred human leg in their farm. Several pieces of the spacecraft, including one which was as big as a compact car, were also found on the Texas-Louisiana line. The NASA officials have started looking into every possible clue in an exercise that will possibly take several months to conclude. They are talking about at least three possibilities: damage from foam insulation to the left wing of the shuttle at the time of launch on January 16; structural failure; and a terrific heat build-up in the shuttle in the aftermath of the loss of the heat shield tiles leading to a total failure of the controls. A fourth factor that is also being looked into is the age of the shuttle; but NASA quickly dismissed it on the ground that space vehicles were kept in "pristine shape.'' Many times in the past, the tiles are known to have come off during takeoff; and in each instance, a determination was made on the kind of impact this could have upon re-entry and landing. In Colombia's case, an assessment of the damage from foam insulation to the left wing had been made. It was concluded on January 16 that the damage was "minor" and that it posed no safety hazard.
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