Michael Leinbach - Bringing Columbia Home - The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew

Administrator Sean O’Keefe and Associate Administrator Bill Readdy met with Columbia ’s families in the Kennedy Space Center astronaut quarters at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time. O’Keefe told the families that President Bush wished to speak with them by conference call. The president conveyed his deepest personal regrets and offered his full and immediate support for whatever actions needed to be taken.

The group spent the next ninety minutes working through details of the next steps. During the conversation, one of the spouses said the most important thing NASA could do was find out what happened, fix it, and rededicate the agency with everything possible to achieve the exploration goals that the crew gave their lives for. O’Keefe was heartened by their encouragement at such a dark time.

Accident Plus Three Hours

Astronaut Dom Gorie made calls to find out if any reconnaissance aircraft were available that could aid in the search for Columbia and her crew. He learned that the Drug Enforcement Administration had a Fairchild C-26 airplane stationed at Ellington Field. The C-26 was equipped with forward-looking infrared equipment. If any large pieces of still-warm debris from the shuttle were on the ground, the sensors might be able to detect them. [13] NASA, Report CB-QMS-024 , 2.

Gorie secured the use of the plane and flew with them to direct the airborne search. No shuttle material was found during their three-hour flight. Disappointingly, the infrared imaging system could not resolve any small pieces of debris on the ground, because large areas of still-smoldering tree stumps from recent controlled burns looked surprisingly like a debris field of warm objects to the infrared sensors.

Dave King drove to Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville shortly after Bill Readdy asked him to head NASA’s overall recovery effort. A group briefed him on the current situation. Reports of possible debris sightings were coming in from California to Florida.

King asked that Marshall’s plane be readied to take him to the accident scene. He phoned his security team and his information technology department and asked that they designate personnel to accompany him. Their departure time would be “as soon as the pilots are ready.”

King drove to Huntsville airport to meet with his team. They quickly discussed what they needed to accomplish once they arrived at their destination—wherever that would be. Several options were being considered in East Texas. The decision would be made while King was en route from Huntsville toward Texas.

Their plane took off at about 11:30 a.m. Central Time and headed southwest. While the plane was in the air, King learned that FEMA was going to set up its disaster field office in Lufkin, Texas. King told the pilot to set course for Lufkin.

Mark Kelly’s coast guard helicopter set down on Hemphill high school’s football field. Kelly went into the school gym, where a basketball game was in progress. He found a policeman and asked to be taken to the town’s incident command center. The policeman escorted him to the firehouse, about one-quarter mile south. Kelly introduced himself to the FBI’s Terry Lane, who had also just arrived in town.

About three hours after the accident, a call had come in regarding a sighting of something unusual on Beckcom Road, a few miles southwest of town. A jogger had seen what he first thought to be the body of a deer or wild boar near the roadway.

Kelly and Lane rode with Sheriff Maddox to the site. They met Tommy Scales from the Department of Public Safety, who had just come from another debris scene nearby.

They encountered what was clearly the remains of one of Columbia ’s crew. [14] Out of respect for the crew’s families, NASA has never released details about the identity, location, or condition of any crew member’s remains during the recovery. Maddox radioed John “Squeaky” Starr, the local funeral director, to come to the scene to assist in the recovery. Kelly also requested that a clergyman come to the site to perform a service before the remains were moved or photographed. While they were waiting, another state trooper covered the crew member with his raincoat.

“Brother Fred” Raney, the pastor at Hemphill’s First Baptist Church, had just returned to the firehouse to report that he had seen partial remains of a Columbia crew member in a pasture. Raney drove out to join the officials gathered at the Beckcom Road site. He conducted a short memorial service for the fallen astronaut.

By now, the news media had arrived in the area and were monitoring police radio frequencies. They intercepted the call about the Beckcom Road remains, and a news helicopter full of reporters flew over the scene, trying to get video of the recovery on the ground. They were low enough, and their motion deliberate enough, that it was clear to the people on the ground that the pilot was trying to use the helicopter’s rotor wash to blow the raincoat from the crew member’s remains. Lane and two troopers stood on the corners of the coat to keep it in place. One of the troopers used “an emphatic gesture” to make it clear to the pilot that the helicopter had to leave the area immediately.

Lane later said, “I don’t know if a helicopter has ever been shot down by a DPS pistol, but they were very close to that happening.”

The troopers noted and reported the tail number of the helicopter. Shortly thereafter, the FAA ordered a temporary flight restriction over all of East Texas.

After the remains were placed in a hearse, Kelly, Lane, and Raney moved on to a house near Bronson, where partial remains of another crew member had been reported. The media had intercepted those radio calls, too, and several reporters were on the scene when the officials arrived. From that point forward, the command team began using code words and decoy vehicles whenever crew remains were being investigated.

Lane was a veteran of the FBI’s response to many horrific accidents, including the TWA 800 crash and the World Trade Center attacks. His orders in East Texas were to work as part of a team of four individuals: himself, a forensic anthropologist, a pathologist from El Paso, and a Texas Ranger. Whenever a call came saying, “We think we’ve found something,” the team’s role was to ascertain how likely it was that the finding actually was human remains. The team deployed all necessary resources to make a recovery of any remains that were probably or likely to be human.

Making the first two crew remains recoveries in the space of a few hours set the tone and protocol for subsequent recoveries. From that point forward, whenever possible crew remains were located, the FBI would be called to the scene immediately. An astronaut accompanied Lane and his team to investigate every sighting, without exception.

A Texas Ranger or DPS officer, Brother Fred, and a funeral director (either Squeaky Starr or his son Byron) would meet the FBI evidence recovery team and astronaut at the site. Once the group was assembled, the scene was turned over to the astronaut to step forward and preside over the recovery of his or her colleague. When the astronaut was ready, he or she would signal Brother Fred to approach, who then performed a brief service offering a few words on the heroic sacrifice of the crew member, reading certain verses from Scripture, and then saying a prayer. The astronaut then released control of the scene to the FBI evidence team. The remains were placed in a body bag and taken to a hearse. Squeaky or Byron Starr would then transport the crew member’s remains to a waiting doctor.

Brother Fred learned that Columbia ’s commander Rick Husband had recited Joshua 1:9 to his crew as they suited up before their flight: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Brother Fred incorporated that verse into all of his services in the field. He and Kelly also researched appropriate words to say for Hindi and Hebrew services. All of the services delivered in the field after the first day included Christian, Hebrew, and Hindi prayers.