STS-107 Mishap Response Status Report #2<br />Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2003 - 2 p.m. CST<br /><br />Two trucks containing debris from the space shuttle Columbia arrived at<br />Kennedy Space Center (KSC) this morning. They were the first bringing debris<br />from Barksdale AFB near Shreveport, La., to KSC where investigators will lay<br />them out, about as they were positioned on Columbia.<br /><br />Members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) arrived at KSC<br />about 11 a.m. EST today. The group toured facilities, including the Orbiter<br />Processing Facility Bay 2, housing the Shuttle Endeavour, and Bay 3, where<br />Discovery is undergoing maintenance. The CAIB also visited the Vehicle<br />Assembly Building where Shuttle Atlantis, with its external tank and solid<br />rocket boosters, is atop its mobile launch platform. The CAIB met at<br />intervals throughout the day with KSC officials to get an overview of ground<br />processing activities.<br /><br />On Thursday the board is scheduled to visit the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB)<br />Disassembly Facility and tour the SRB assembly and refurbishment facilities.<br />Members also will visit the Launch Control Center and Launch Pad 39A, where<br />Columbia was launched.<br /><br />Retired Navy Admiral Harold Gehman, CAIB chairman, spoke briefly with news<br />media representatives. He said the CAIB wants to look at four things at<br />KSC: launch procedures; Shuttle refurbishment between flights; the Columbia<br />mishap reconstruction site; "and be sure in our own minds the process here<br />for Columbia reconstruction meets our investigatory needs." The efforts<br />will take place in the Reusable Launch Vehicle Hangar located adjacent to<br />the Space Shuttle runway at KSC.<br /><br />Gehman described the trip to KSC as an orientation visit. He said the CAIB<br />would return to KSC a number of times during the investigation. The CAIB is<br />scheduled to travel to Huntsville, Ala., and then New Orleans before<br />returning to Houston Saturday night. Gehman said Sunday would be a workday,<br />and that the board would be working seven- or six-day weeks "from now on."<br /><br />More than 2,500 federal, state and local employees continued to search for<br />Columbia debris in Texas and Louisiana today. Officials say they have the<br />resources to cover every body of water in the debris trail within 5 weeks.<br />While teams continue to investigate reports of debris as far west as<br />California, no confirmed pieces of debris from Columbia have been found west<br />of the Fort Worth, Texas area.<br /><br />Hundreds of items continue to be collected from areas in eastern Texas and<br />western Louisiana. Several hundred items were shipped in the past 24 hours<br />to Barksdale from locations in Lufkin, Nacogdoches and Hemphill, Texas.<br /><br />The International Space Station's Expedition 6 crew, Commander Ken Bowersox,<br />Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA Station Science Officer Don Pettit,<br />took time Wednesday for interviews with CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC<br />representatives. They talked about their shock and grief after being told<br />the morning of Feb. 1 by Johnson Space Center Director Jefferson D. Howell<br />Jr. of the loss of Columbia, and their willingness to remain aboard the ISS<br />as long as necessary.