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

However, the media somehow got wind that a third crew member had been found in Housen Bayou. Texas DPS officers held most of the reporters back about a quarter mile from the entrance to the woods, but one reporter had arrived on the scene before the roadblock was established. He told Sheriff Maddox, waiting by the ambulance dispatched to recover the remains, that he had a constitutional right to follow the recovery team back into the woods. After arguing for several minutes, Maddox presented the man the option of leaving the scene voluntarily or being taken out in the back of a police car.

While Maddox and the reporter argued, the landowners took Kelly, Lane, and Brother Fred to the astronaut’s location. The mud and briar thickets made the swampy bayou area difficult to navigate. Kelly went forward to be near his fallen colleague. After pausing in reflection for a moment, he motioned for Raney to join him. Raney once again read a few passages from Scripture and said a prayer. It was an arduous and sorrowful process to carry the astronaut’s remains back out of the woods to the waiting ambulance.

Ed Mango, Dom Gorie, Jerry Ross, and several specialists from the Rapid Response Team left Barksdale Air Force Base for Lufkin at noon in their rental cars. Upon arriving in the Civic Center a few hours later, they were struck by the chaotic activity. Ross’s and Gorie’s blue astronaut flight suits immediately drew attention and inquiries from people who sought direction in how to handle the debris reports. Someone said the governor’s office was insisting that NASA remove debris from all the school and hospital grounds as quickly as possible. Ross gave his car keys to one of the three men who came with him from Barksdale and asked them to help with the school cleanup.

Ross staked a claim to a work area in the midst of the chaos. He began to formulate a plan and establish the working relationships that would help the debris team accomplish its task. Then he started brainstorming the critical questions he would need to answer: How do you conduct a methodical search? How do you photograph, document, and mark the location of each item consistently? How do you ensure that it’s not contaminated before it’s collected? What are the logistics for getting each item from the field to some holding area and then to wherever it is eventually going to end up?

Ed Mango asked one of the Texas Forest Service workers if he could see a printout of some of the debris sightings. He noted an entry regarding a tire found at a farm near Chireno, Texas. He wondered how a rubber tire could possibly survive the heat of reentry.

Then they heard about an unusual sighting near Fort Polk, Louisiana. US Forest Service personnel, looking for debris after hearing loud sonic booms the previous day, had driven past several water-filled mudholes in the remote forest. At first glance, the holes were not particularly noteworthy. But then the searchers saw that mud was splattered forty-five feet high on the trunks of trees surrounding several of the holes.

The holes were impact craters.

The team agreed that they needed to investigate these unusual sightings. Dom Gorie had secured for the team’s use several Army Reserve helicopters, which were now stationed at the Lufkin airport. Mango would take a helicopter eastward along the debris track from Lufkin, and Gorie would go west from Nacogdoches. Ross would investigate the craters in Louisiana.

At the two o’clock status update meeting, Bob Hesselmeyer from Johnson Space Center was announced as the leader for a Data/Records Working Group, tasked with analyzing telemetry and other data from Columbia to try to understand what caused the accident. There were already indications that thirty-two seconds of additional information from Columbia might be stored in Mission Control’s computers.

Meanwhile, NASA had asked the public for help with the Columbia investigation. They requested that people contact NASA if they discovered debris or had film or video evidence of the accident. [10] NASA, “NASA Asks for Help with Columbia Investigation,” news release H03-033, February 2, 2003.

The EPA deployed hazmat teams to the field to help decontaminate and collect hazardous debris. EPA was also flying an aircraft with infrared sensors to detect the presence of hazardous chemicals. [11] FEMA, “FEMA Puts Federal Resources into Action to Assist State and Local Authorities in Search, Find and Secure Mission for Columbia Debris,” news release HQ-03-029, February 2, 2003. This was a suite of Airborne Spectral Photo-imaging of Environmental Contaminants Technology (ASPECT) sensors mounted in a twin-engine aircraft.

Six EPA-led search teams began searching for debris in schoolyards along the debris path, assisted by NASA engineers, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and local volunteer fire departments. Fifteen teams would be available the next morning to concentrate on clearing school grounds. In Nacogdoches County, volunteer firefighter Jan Amen told a friend, “Never in my wildest dreams did I picture myself scouring the school yard for pieces of a spacecraft.” [12] Jan Amen email, February 4, 2003.

Ed Mango was on his way to investigate the mysterious sighting of a tire in a field near Chireno, Texas. As he prepared to board his helicopter at the Lufkin airport, he saw another military helicopter land about a hundred yards away, met by a color guard and an astronaut. All activity ceased as the remains of a Columbia crew member were solemnly carried from the helicopter to a waiting ambulance.

Mango’s Blackhawk helicopter crew included the two Army Reserve pilots, a technician from United Space Alliance, a Texas state trooper, and a forestry worker. Mango gave the pilot the tire’s GPS coordinates and suggested they get to the site as quickly as possible. It was already late in the winter afternoon.

They flew low over the national forest on the way to the farm where the tire had been reported. They could see dozens of pieces of debris littering the ground along their route—so much that it was obviously not just trash strewn by careless people. At first, the team recorded the GPS coordinates of each sighting. After logging ten items, they realized there was no way they could keep records of every sighting and still make it to the tire before sunset, so they pressed onward.

They finally saw the tire in a clearing, and from the air it appeared to be relatively intact. The residents of the farm—a woman who appeared to be in her forties, two kids under ten years old, and an older man who appeared to be their grandfather—had come outside after hearing the helicopter circling overhead. The chopper landed, and the pilot walked toward the family to ask their permission to land on their property. His bubble helmet and green flight suit must have appeared frightening, because the children cowered and clung to their mother as he approached. Mango, dressed in less threatening civilian clothes, ran over and explained that they were federal representatives and would like her permission to investigate the debris on the property. She said, “Of course you have my permission!”

Mango explained that he would not be able to remove the tire from the property, and that the family should stay away from it in case it was contaminated by fuels. The mother asked, “Are you part of the army?” Mango said that he worked for NASA.

The grandfather appeared stunned. “You mean there’s a NASA guy in our backyard?”

The mother then said something that stuck with Mango for the rest of his NASA career. It was a statement, not a question: “We are going to fly again, right?”