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

The results were incredible. By April 7, more than sixty thousand pieces of shuttle debris—totaling 70,700 pounds—had been collected from the field and transported to Kennedy Space Center. Of the 137 tanks and cylinders with hazardous materials on board Columbia , 76 had been recovered. Ground searchers had covered 77 percent of the assigned acreage in Texas and Louisiana. Water searches in Toledo Bend were 99.5 percent complete. Aerial searches were on temporary hold following the March 27 accident, but 76 percent of the assigned aerial grids had already been searched.

The personnel staffing snapshot on April 7 showed 5,545 people working in search operations. This included 683 EPA, 75 FEMA, 282 NASA, and 4,289 US Forest Service personnel engaged in the ground search; air operations had fifty-five people assigned; and 130 people were working on diving operations. The Texas Forest Service had twenty-two people assigned, and there were a few other resources from DOD, DOT, and the Texas Department of Emergency Management. [13] FEMA, “Space Shuttle Columbia; Emergency and Related Determinations,” news releases FEMA-3171-EM-TX and FEMA-3172-EM-LA and situation report 59, April 7, 2003.

STS-114, the space shuttle’s next planned mission, was on hold but not canceled. NASA did not yet know when the mission might fly—it could be a matter of months or years. In the meantime, astronaut Eileen Collins, the mission’s commander, needed to keep her crew focused, engaged, and working as a team.

Although they could not commit to a long-term assignment, she hoped that her crew might be able to do something to help the Columbia recovery effort. Collins asked Jim Wetherbee and Dom Gorie if the STS-114 crew could walk a search one day. They agreed that it would be a positive way to show the astronaut office’s support and gratitude for the ground search. It would also demonstrate NASA’s intention to fly the shuttle again as soon as possible.

Collins and her crewmates Jim Kelly and Soichi Noguchi flew into Nacogdoches Airport on Thursday, April 10. After a tour of the collection facility and a safety orientation, they went to a search site. [14] NASA, “Columbia Recovery Visit to Nacogdoches Incident Command Site and Lufkin, Agenda for STS-114 Crew,” NASA Public Affairs Office (Johnson Space Center) internal memo, April 10, 2003.

They were told in advance about the physical conditions to expect in the field, but Collins was uncertain about what the emotional state of the search teams would be. She had attended all of the funerals and memorial services for the Columbia crew. She expected people working the recovery effort to be grim or sad. Much to her surprise, she found the search crews and her NASA colleagues upbeat. “I realized that you just can’t be looking at a funeral all those weeks,” she said. “You’ve got to start living again.”

Collins, Kelly, and Noguchi walked with searchers for about two hours. Noguchi found a piece of tile. Collins felt somewhat disappointed not to find anything herself, despite being intensely focused on the ground around her. She thought it might have helped her gain some measure of closure with her friends who perished on Columbia .

Collins and crew then flew to Lufkin. That evening, they gave a presentation at the Civic Center for the Lufkin community, showing videos about the space shuttle and the International Space Station. The crew distributed stickers of their mission patch and signed photos for the attendees. Once again, it was a way for NASA to thank the residents of East Texas for their extraordinary support and sacrifices in the cause of manned spaceflight. [15] Stacy Faison, “Shuttle Crew Visits East Texas,” Lufkin Daily News , April 11, 2003.

On April 23, five Columbia crew spouses came to East Texas to thank the recovery teams and to visit the area where the crew’s remains were found. Jan Amen of the Texas Forest Service was one of the drivers for the group. After they toured the Nacogdoches collection center, Amen escorted Lani McCool and Rona Ramon to the Hemphill area. FBI special agents Terry Lane and Ed Zalomski accompanied them. The other spouses stayed in the Nacogdoches area to meet with some of the recovery teams. [16] NASA, “Columbia Recovery Agenda for Family Visit,” internal memo, April 23, 2003.

The landowner on whose property Ilan Ramon’s remains were found had been informed that Mrs. Ramon was coming to see the site. In preparation for her visit, he built an access road through the woods to the recovery area—at his own expense—to ease her journey. [17] Interview with Brent Jett.

Brother Fred Raney met with Mrs. McCool and Mrs. Ramon and told them how their loved ones had been cared for in the “chapel in the woods.” Brother Fred said, “I wanted them to know that they were being thought of during that whole time.”

Jan Amen wrote to a friend of her experience that day: “Who gets to do that? I was so humbled by that honor.”

The navy wrapped up its operations on April 13. The only two Columbia debris objects retrieved from Toledo Bend Reservoir were the landing gear brake assembly found by the FBI on February 10 and the thumbnail-sized piece of shuttle skin found in March. Dive teams were unable to locate any debris in Lake Nacogdoches.

The navy knew going into the operation that the cards were stacked against their finding anything in the reservoirs. Despite the challenges, the navy brought its highest skilled personnel and most sophisticated search equipment to the scene and worked continuously for two months.

The navy concluded that despite the “ear witness” reports, it appeared that no large, intact sections of the shuttle landed in the lakes in the primary search area. Smaller pieces may have fallen into the lakes, but they could not be located with current technology and within time and resource constraints. And short of draining the lakes—which was clearly impracticable—it was impossible to find smaller debris. [18] US Navy, Salvage Report , 5-2.

In a sense, it was a good thing that the navy did not find shuttle material in the lakes. NASA could be relatively certain that nothing toxic or of potentially significant value to the investigation was still underwater.

The remarkably efficient ground and air searches cleared the debris field on schedule. By mid-April, Dave Whittle said, “It was becoming obvious that we were not finding the big parts anymore, and the smaller stuff probably provides less information than the big stuff does. And we were also looking at our maps and seeing we were about finished.”

It was time to begin closing down the search effort.

One of FEMA’s three primary objectives for the operation was to return the disaster area to the condition it was in prior to the accident. Whittle and his colleagues met with each of the Texas county judges from the affected counties to ensure they felt that things had returned to normal. Whittle also made certain the judges understood how to reach NASA’s Columbia Recovery Office at KSC if anything else turned up in their communities.

On April 18, Palestine became the first camp to close. A few days later in Hemphill, Choctaw firefighters from Oklahoma staged a Native fellowship or victory dance in the VFW hall to celebrate the successful completion of the search in Sabine and San Augustine Counties. Then Hemphill’s camp and collection center closed on April 22.

The place felt eerily silent after three months of nonstop activity. After ensuring that everything had been cleaned up properly, Greg Cohrs went home and became sick for nearly a week. Just as had happened up to the point that the last of Columbia ’s crew members were recovered, Cohrs said, “My exhausted and drained body was able to resist illness until I completed the work.” [19] Cohrs, “Notes,” 19.