THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2003
1910 GMT (2:10 p.m. EST)
A preliminary review of Columbia's OEX data recorder indicates that potential data may exist as late as 9:00:18 a.m. EST on Feb. 1. Based upon the timeline, that would be several seconds after the last known data received on the ground from Columbia and just moments before the vehicle broke apart.
The recorder tape was duplicated at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week and will be reviewed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and other facilities this weekend.
No actual sensor data on that tape has been reviewed at this time, but a "time tag" viewed on the tape during its duplication confirms that some type of imprint exists until 9:00:18 a.m. After that time, the tape is blank.
The process of reviewing any engineering data that may be contained on the tape is expected to be time consuming, officials said. But investigators hope that any useful data retrieved from the recorder can be baselined on the Columbia accident timeline as soon as possible.
1545 GMT (10:45 a.m. EST)
Specialists examining the recovered Columbia data recorder say the device does contain information on the shuttle's reentry through 9:00 a.m. EST on Feb. 1, sources tell reporter William Harwood. What the data could reveal remains to be seen.
The so-called OEX recorder was found during a grid search March 19 near Hemphill, Texas. The device was remarkably intact with one edge buried about three inches in soft soil. Over the weekend, engineers with Imation Corp. in Minnesota cleaned and stabilized the 1-inch-wide, 28-track tape and sent it on to the Kennedy Space Center for duplication. Engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston hope to begin analyzing whatever data was recorded.
We'll post more details as they become available.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2003
Engineers hope to begin analyzing data this weekend from a recovered tape recorder that stored readings from some 721 sensors throughout the shuttle Columbia during its final 45 minutes of flight. Analysts hope the data will help them precisely map out the flow of hot gas through the doomed ship's left wing to confirm and refine - or possibly modify - current theories about where the initial breach occurred and how the deadly plume then worked its way through the interior of the wing. Read our full story.
TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2003
An independent aerospace expert told the Columbia Accident Investigation Board Tuesday NASA managers somehow missed the obvious when it came to the potential threat of foam debris falling off the space shuttle's external fuel tank. Read our full story.
MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2003
Magnetic tape inside a data recorder recovered last week in Texas appears to be in remarkably good shape. Engineers are increasingly optimistic about recovering potentially valuable data from the salvaged tape that could shed additional light on the aerodynamic forces and temperatures the shuttle experienced during its final minutes. Read our full story.
FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2003
NASA has announced a revamped management team to oversee the agency's internal investigation of the Columbia disaster in accordance with a request made late last month by the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Read our full story.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2003
Search crews walking a grid near Hemphill, Texas, have found the shuttle Columbia's orbiter experiments recorder, or OEX, a tape recorder that stored key data about the shuttle's performance during re-entry. Read our full story.
TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2003
As investigators increasingly focus on a breach at or just behind the leading edge of the shuttle Columbia's left wing as the root cause of the Feb. 1 disaster, engineers poring over telemetry from the doomed ship are zeroing in on exactly where the breach must have occurred - and how it must have propagated - to explain the orbiter's response to the resulting aerodynamic forces that ultimately ripped the ship apart. Read our full story.
MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2003
A NASA flight director told the Columbia Accident Investigation Board Monday he was amazed the doomed spacecraft was able to continue flying in relatively normal fashion for nearly 10 minutes while shedding multiple pieces of flaming debris as a plume of superheated air burned its way into the stricken ship's left wing. Read our full story.
SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2003
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board will hold public hearings on Monday and Tuesday in Houston. The sessions will feature experts in reentry debris, aerodynamics and thermodynamics.
Monday's event -- scheduled for 1900-2200 GMT (2 to 5 p.m. EST) -- will hear from Dr. William Ailor, director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at Aerospace Corp.; Robert "Doug" White, United Space Alliance's director of operational requirements; and NASA space shuttle and station flight director Paul Hill.
Tuesday will see Stephen Labbe, NASA's chief of the Applied Aeroscience and Computational Fluid Dynamics Branch; Christopher Madden, NASA deputy chief of the Thermal Design Branch; Jose Caram, NASA aerospace engineer in the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division; and Dr. John Bertin, professor of aeronautics at the United States Air Force Academy. Tuesday's hearing is scheduled for 1500-1800 GMT (10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST).
FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 2003
William Readdy, associate administrator for spaceflight and a former shuttle commander, told the Columbia Accident Investigation Board he did not consider asking for a spy satellite inspection of Columbia's left wing during the doomed ship's mission because the agency had already concluded the shuttle could land safely. Read our full story.
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2003
Investigators have recovered debris from the shuttle Columbia that appears to support the increasingly held belief that the doomed ship's left landing gear door remained in place as a plume of super-heated air entering through a breach near the leading edge of the left wing wreaked havoc inside the wheel well. Read our full story.
TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2003
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board Tuesday showed video of Columbia's launching that indicates foam debris falling away from the ship's external fuel tank slammed into the lower leading edge of the orbiter's left wing within a few feet of where it merged with the fuselage. Read our full story.
NASA managers meeting 90 minutes after the Columbia disaster Feb. 1 discussed a re-analysis of the potential damage caused by foam debris slamming into the shuttle's left wing during launch. But senior managers decided the public would be told, during an initial press conference, that the debris hit "on the left wing was reviewed and not determined to be safety of flight issue." Read our full story.
MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2003
Robert Daugherty, a senior engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center, said Monday his widely publicized emails outlining various dire scenarios for the shuttle Columbia's re-entry Feb. 1 were misinterpreted by the media. Read our full story.
SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 2003
A computer alarm generated in the final two seconds of data from Columbia suggests one of the pilots' joystick hand controllers may have been briefly engaged, but the autopilot was never deactivated before contact was lost. Read our full story.
SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2003
Working through a process of elimination, NASA engineers are focusing on 10 major failure scenarios - and combinations thereof - to explain what went wrong during the shuttle Columbia's catastrophic re-entry. Read our full story.
FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2003
NASA engineers struggling to match up telemetry from the shuttle Columbia's left wing and hot gas flow patterns found in wing debris increasingly suspect a plume of hot gas may have entered the wing from a breach at or near the leading edge area, close to the ship's fuselage, and worked its way into the left main landing gear wheel well. NASA sources say wreckage from the underbelly of the shuttle just adjacent to the left landing gear door indicates hot gas from inside the wheel well may have spewed out around the inboard edge of the door as the catastrophe unfolded. Read our full story.
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2003
Shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore, testifying Thursday before the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said safety is the agency's "lifeblood" and that his door is always open to any lower-level engineer who might be worried a safety issue is not being properly addressed. Read our full story.
2100 GMT (4:00 p.m. EST)
The hearing has concluded. We will be posting video clips for Spaceflight Now Plus subscribers shortly.
1900 GMT (2:00 p.m. EST)
In its first public hearing, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board has so far heard from Jefferson D. Howell, Jr., Director of NASA's Johnson Space Center and Ron Dittemore, Shuttle Program Manager. The board's questioning has sought background about the management and budget structure of the space shuttle program and has not focused on the particulars of the Columbia accident.
In response to a question, Dittemore told the board that he is not contemplating a reduction in workforce while the shuttle program is grounded. Dittemore's testimony continues.
1530 GMT (10:30 a.m. EST)
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board will hold its first public hearing at the University of Houston - Clear Lake today. The hearing is due to run 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST (1600-2100 GMT). Spaceflight Now will post any significant developments that emerge from the hearing on this page.
Those appearing before the board today include: Jefferson D. Howell, Jr., Director, Johnson Space Center; Ron Dittemore, NASA Shuttle Program Manager; Keith Chong, Boeing Company Senior Engineer/Scientist, Expendable Launch Systems, who will speak about the use of foam on space vehicles; and Dr. Harry McDonald, professor of computational engineering at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, a former director of NASA's Ames Research Center and author of a recent report into the space shuttle program.
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2003
0400 GMT (11 p.m. EST Fri.)
Searchers have recovered a large section of the outboard corner of Columbia's left wing inboard elevon and the 17-inch disconnect assembly from the shuttle's belly, NASA announced Friday night. The 17-inch disconnect is significant in that it may lead searchers to cameras that were mounted nearby for the purpose of documenting the condition of the external tank as it is jettisoned.
Weather cleared for some search efforts Friday, but continued to hamper others:
Earlier searchers found what is believed to be the Combustion Module-2 experiment facility that had been aboard the Spacehab Research Double Module in Columbia's cargo bay. Three flame-related experiments were conducted in the module during the STS-107 mission. Scientists estimate that more than 50 percent of data from those experiments was received by downlink during the mission.
A "low-intensity search effort" is being organized along the California coast, looking for any evidence of material that might have fallen in the ocean and drifted to shore. Volunteer sheriffs posies are expected to search the shoreline in Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties, 30 miles north and south of Columbia's re-entry track.
The western-most find of confirmed Shuttle debris to date is a piece of tile found about 40 miles northwest of Lubbock, Texas.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2003
Minutes before the shuttle Columbia broke apart 207,000 feet above Texas, commander Rick Husband and his crewmates marveled at the hot gas surrounding the spaceplane as it plunged deeper and deeper into the atmosphere. Read our full story.
Meanwhile, contrary to published reports, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board did not ask NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe to remove shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore from an active role in the agency's ongoing probe of the Columbia disaster, sources say. Read our full story.
1600 GMT (11 a.m. EST)
NASA has just issued this announcement:
Flight-deck video, taken by members of the Space Shuttle Columbia crew on Feb. 1, will be released at 1 p.m. EST today on NASA Television. The videotape was recovered February 6 near Palestine, Texas, during search and recovery efforts after the tragedy.The video is about 13 minutes long and shows flight-deck activity beginning about 8:35 a.m. EST as Columbia passed over the south central Pacific Ocean at an altitude of approximately 500,000 feet. It continues until approximately 8:48 a.m. EST, when Columbia was over the eastern Pacific Ocean, southwest of the San Francisco Bay area. The video ends approximately 11 minutes prior to loss of signal between the orbiter and Mission Control.
Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark were on the flight deck during reentry. In the video, they can be heard conversing among themselves and working through routine checklist activities with flight controllers in Mission Control.
Mission Specialists Mike Anderson and Dave Brown, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon were on Columbia's mid-deck during reentry. The video was shot with a small onboard camera mounted to the right of McCool, who then removes it and hands it to Clark for additional filming.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2003
Speaking on Capitol Hill, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said today the space station's international partners have agreed to keep the lab complex manned with rotating two-person crews launched aboard Russian Soyuz ferry craft until space shuttles return to flight. Read our full story.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2003
Despite NASA's oft-stated position that no one was overly worried about potentially catastrophic damage to the shuttle Columbia's left wing after launch, engineers and even some flight controllers continued to debate worst-case "what if" scenarios as late as the afternoon before the orbiter's destruction, according to internal emails released today. Read our full story.
Meanwhile, mechanical systems officer Jeff Kling, the flight controller who first noticed problems in the shuttle Columbia's left wing during re-entry Feb. 1, said today he had no idea a disaster was about to unfold and that "what-if" discussions he had by email the day before were just that and not an indication of any real concern on his part. Read our full story.
1030 GMT (5:30 a.m. EST)
NASA has provided an update on debris recovery operations:
Texas weather Tuesday hampered the search for debris as rain and cold temperatures swept through the area. Teams based in Nacogdoches and Hemphill searched throughout the day. Ice kept search teams based in Corsicana in camp Tuesday, while teams from Palestine searched for half a day.Low ceilings at mid-day kept search aircraft on the ground. Navy dive teams at Toledo Bend Reservoir began operations about noon. More than 4,000 searchers and support personnel from 38 states were in the area Tuesday, focusing on the 10- by 240-mile area from south of Dallas to Toledo Bend. No confirmed Columbia debris has been found west of the Littlefield, Texas area.
Finds reported during the past two days include a number of Shuttle tiles, and what appeared to be a panel from the lower surface of the right wing and a piece of the lower forward fuselage of Columbia.
The effort to consolidate three search coordination field offices, Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, the Joint Reserve Base (Carswell Field), Texas and Hemphill, Texas, into the main facility at Lufkin, Texas, should be completed this week.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2003
A fragment of videotape shot by one of the astronauts on Columbia's flight deck during the early stages of re-entry Feb. 1 has been recovered by NASA. But sources say the heat-damaged tape ends before the onset of problems in the left wing that ultimately led to the orbiter's destruction and the deaths of the ship's crew. As such, the tape provides no insight into the mishap. Read our full story.
2110 GMT (4:10 p.m. EST)
NASA has released visible and infrared images of the orbiting space shuttle Columbia taken by the U.S. Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site on January 28 as the spacecraft flew above the island of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands.
2105 GMT (4:05 p.m. EST)
We have posted images of a tile recovered from near Powell, Texas, that is of particular interest to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
2032 GMT (3:32 p.m. EST)
Board member Brigadier General Duane Deal has provided more information about the object that appears to have separated from the orbiter on the second day of Columbia's mission.
The object was only discovered by Space Command following a review of tracking data after the accident. Early analysis has shown the object to be 0.3 metres by 0.4 metres in size. The composition of the object has yet to be determined, although it is believed to be lightweight. The object rotated slowly and gradually separated from the shuttle before reentering on January 20 over the South Pacific.
2026 GMT (3:26 p.m. EST)
Admiral Gehman says 8,110 pieces of debris have been recovered to date. Of that 5,297 pieces have been identified. The debris represents over 10 percent of the shuttle vehicle. He said only a small fraction of the left wing has been recovered and identified.
2020 GMT (3:20 p.m. EST)
Board member Scott Hubbard confirms reports that the final two seconds of data received from the orbiter reveal that the orbiter's Auxiliary Power Units were functioning but pressures in the three hydraulic lines and the hydraulic reservoirs were at zero.
2008 GMT (3:08 p.m. EST)
Admiral "Hal" Gehman, board chairman, has shown images of a tile that was recovered west of Fort Worth. The underside of tile appears eroded in places and the topside shows unusual heating effects.
Another fragment of tile, found west of the Littlefield, Texas, area, is now considered the western-most confirmed debris from Columbia.
The board's first public hearing will be held on Thursday, March 6, at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
2002 GMT (3:02 p.m. EST)
Today's Columbia Accident Investigation Board news conference is underway. The board has established a website: http://www.caib.us/
1900 GMT (2:00 p.m. EST)
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) today. Board Chairman, retired Navy Admiral Harold W. "Hal" Gehman Jr., will be joined by board members Scott Hubbard, Director, NASA Ames Research Center, Major General Kenneth W. Hess, Commander, Air Force Safety Center, and Brigadier General Duane Deal, Commander 21st Space Wing.
We will update this page with any significant developments during the course of the briefing.
Meanwhile NASA issued the following status report yesterday on efforts to recover debris from Columbia:
Helped by sunny but breezy weekend weather in Texas and Louisiana, ground searchers continued to recover debris believed to be from Space Shuttle Columbia. Among the finds were what was thought to be a main landing gear strut, additional parts of the left wing and a 4- by 6-foot piece of mid-body sidewall.Other items included what appeared to be a piece of Orbital Maneuvering System tankage and protective heat-resistant tiles.
More than 2,400 ground searchers were in the field Sunday, in 20-member teams based in the Texas towns of Nacogdoches, Hemphill, Palestine and Corsicana. An additional 440 people were training for search activities. Methodical ground grid searches continued to be productive in aiding in the discovery of smaller pieces of shuttle debris.
High winds hampered air and water searches during the weekend. The addition of another Navy team brought the total number of dive teams to eight. Other dive teams represented the Houston and Galveston police departments, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Environmental Protection Agency. Despite the wind, searchers were able to recover pieces of tile from Lake Bardwell near Waxahachie, Texas.
The effort to consolidate three search coordination field offices (Barksdale AFB, La., the Joint Reserve Base (Carswell Field), Texas, and Hemphill, Texas) into the main facility at Lufkin, Texas, progressed over the weekend.
Investigators searched sites near Caliente, Nev., for what could be a piece of Columbia debris tracked by air traffic control radar during the time of the spacecraftıs Feb. 1 descent over California and Nevada. While some material was recovered in the area, none was confirmed as coming from Columbia.
Similar work to narrow the possible locations of other debris in the U.S. Southwest continued; although, no new areas were identified for further investigation. As of late Monday, no shuttle debris was confirmed west of the Littlefield, Texas, area.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2003
The shuttle Columbia's fuselage remained essentially intact for at least a half minute after the commander's final transmission, according to sources familiar with an ongoing analysis of the last 32 seconds of telemetry from the doomed spacecraft. The astronauts almost certainly had some awareness of the unfolding disaster, but there is no insight at this point to indicate what they might have known, or when. Read our full story.
In other story, we report that in January 1980, NASA announced a contract to develop a kit for astronauts to repair damaged heat shield tiles on the space shuttle. No such kit has been flown on a shuttle in recent memory, but the release makes for interesting reading in light of the shuttle Columbia's catastrophic breakup during re-entry Feb. 1. Here is the text of the Jan. 22, 1980, news release.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2003
The commander of the international space station said Thursday if the shuttle remains grounded for a prolonged period, and if the Russians cannot produce more Progress supply ships, the orbiting laboratory may not be able to support even two-person "caretaker" crews for any extended period. Read our full story.
Meanwhile, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board is making "significant progress" analyzing video, still photographs, radar data and other sources of civilian and government data to more precisely determine where debris shed early in the shuttle Columbia's re-entry might have fallen, the board reported Thursday. Read our full story.
2045 GMT (3:45 p.m. EST)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has provided another update on debris recovery operations:
The primary search area now consists of a 10-mile by 240-mile corridor along the shuttle flight path from Ellis County, south of Dallas continuing along a southeast path to the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Ground search will concentrate on a 2-mile area either side of the projected flight path while air search operations focus 5-miles on either side of the corridor centerline.
The Southern Area Incident Command Blue Team, operating from the Nacogdoches base camp in Texas, now consists of 950 personnel who worked in three areas on Wednesday. Three additional search teams, each consisting of approximately 1,000 searchers are being formed. They will be operating out of Palestine, Hemphill and Corsicana.
0010 GMT (7:10 p.m. EST, Wed.)
NASA has issued an appeal for help locating debris from the space shuttle Columbia that might have fallen in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Here is the text of the NASA news release:
NASA is asking citizens and officials in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah for help to find material from the Space Shuttle Columbia. The material would have fallen from the Shuttle as it was reentering Earth's atmosphere along a line stretching generally from San Francisco to Lafayette, La. Everyone is asked to be on the lookout for possible Shuttle material 60 miles north or south of the reentry track, particularly in the following counties:Arizona: Apache, Navajo, Coconino, Mohave;
Nevada: Lincoln;
New Mexico: San Juan, Kane, Beaver; and
Utah: Washington, Iron, San Juan, Garfield.
Anyone who finds material, suspected to be from the Shuttle, is urged to avoid contact, because it may be hazardous due to fuel residue. Report such material by calling, toll-free:
1-866-446-6603
Citizens are reminded Shuttle material may not look like typical aircraft components. Pictures of examples of Shuttle debris may be viewed at: www.nasa.gov/columbia/COL_debris_pix.html
All debris is U.S. Government property and is critical to the investigation of the mishap. Debris from the accident should be left in place and reported to Government authorities. Unauthorized persons found in possession of accident debris will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2003
2330 GMT (6:30 p.m. EST)
NASA officials say Columbia's nose landing gear has been found relatively intact in woods near the Toledo Bend Reservoir in East Texas. News reports quote Navy Chief Warrant Officer Roger Riendeau as saying the eight-foot long gear was found lying in the dirt with its wheels still on their hubs.
1830 GMT (1:30 p.m. EST)
Admiral Harold Gehman, chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, yesterday announced the opening of the Board's Washington, D.C., office and the appointment of Thomas L. Carter as Assistant for Government Relations. Carter will be the Board's independent representation in Washington and will maintain contact with both Congress and Executive Branch organizations.
"Tom brings a wealth of government service to the CAIB, having held key staff positions in the White House, U.S. Senate and Department of Defense spanning nearly 23 years," said Gehman.
Carter is an Air Force Reserve Flag Officer and is a career aviator with over 10,000 flying hours, mostly with a commercial air carrier. He is a resident of Charleston, South Carolina, and will work out of the Washington office for the duration of the board.
1400 GMT (9:00 a.m. EST)
The search for debris from the space shuttle Columbia continues across the United States. Yesterday the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that 660 Forest Service searchers, members of the Southern Area Incident Command Blue Team, are on the ground walking in close formation looking for Columbia material. Three additional teams are expected. The Martin team will work out of Hemphill, Texas and the McComb teams will headquarter at Palestine, Texas with the fourth team operating out of Corsicana, Texas.
"In the next few days we expect over 2,000 searchers on the ground looking for material in the areas of Nacogdoches, Hemphill and Palestine, Texas," FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Scott Wells said in a statement.
NASA is also stepping up the search for debris from the shuttle that might have fallen as far west as California. Pieces of the shuttle that broke away during the early stages of its reentry would provide vital clues to investigators trying to determine how the orbiter's thermal protection system was breached. As of yesterday, shuttle debris had been confirmed on the ground in a swathe from just west of Fort Worth, Texas to Fort Polk, Louisiana.
"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has asked for additional assistance from farmers and ranchers and their employees to search an area from 60 miles either side of a line from San Francisco, California to Lafayette, Louisiana looking for Columbia material. FEMA continues to support NASA with many federal resources as they work their way through the material recovery phase of this operation," concluded Wells.
As of yesterday, FEMA reported that 79 percent of sites in Texas and 99 percent of sites in Louisiana where shuttle wreckage had been reported have been cleared.
U.S. Navy divers are continuing recovery operations at Toledo Bend Reservoir and Lake Nacogdoches.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2003
Engineers dissecting telemetry from the shuttle Columbia and videotape of its fiery re-entry now believe eyewitness accounts of debris falling away from the spacecraft as it passed above California, well before its ultimate breakup high above Texas. At the same time, investigators believe the breach that let hot gas eat its way into the shuttle's left wing probably was located at or near the leading edge of the wing or perhaps at or near a seal in the left main landing gear door. Read our full story.
2050 GMT (3:50 p.m. EST)
The investigation board has seen images of the orbiter in space taken by powerful telescopes operated by the U.S. Air Force on Maui, Hawaii. Admiral Gehman said the pictures do not show anything obvious. The images will be released if the U.S. Air Force approves.
2038 GMT (3:38 p.m. EST)
Admiral Gehman, said it has not yet been confirmed if a main landing gear strut recovered from the debris field is from the right or left of the orbiter. Engineers at the Kennedy Space Center are dismantling the strut in an effort to identify its origin. The investigation into the shuttle's loss has so far focused on the left wing and left landing wheel well area.
2030 GMT (3:30 p.m. EST)
Board member Dr James N. Hallock said video of the shuttle's reentry does appear to show debris falling away from the shuttle while it was over California. Admiral Gehman repeated a request for members of the public to submit any video or photographs of the shuttle's reentry to the investigation board. Technicians at the Johnson Space Center are trying to determine where any debris would have fallen in California.
2011 GMT (3:11 p.m. EST)
About 4,000 pieces of shuttle debris have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center from Texas and Louisiana, Admiral Gehman said. Of the material at KSC, 2,400 pieces have been identified and laid out on the hangar floor where the debris is being reassembled. A further 10,000 pieces of debris have been collected and are in transit to KSC or Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
2006 GMT (3:06 p.m. EST)
Investigation Chairman, Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Harold W. Gehman, said the board will hold its first public hearing a week on Thursday. The venue is to be decided.
2000 GMT (3:00 p.m. EST)
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board is holding a news conference at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. We will post any major developments here.
1950 GMT (2:50 p.m. EST)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported yesterday that 77 percent of sites in Texas and 99 percent of sites in Louisiana where debris from shuttle Columbia had been reported have been cleared.