NASA reconstructing Columbia


Message posted by A on March 04, 2003 at 9:59:15 PST:

NASA Workers Solemnly Reconstruct Shuttle

Washington Post 4 Mar 03
author: Mike Schneider / Associated Press

In their white lab coats and protective goggles, the scores of workers in
the 50,000-square-foot hangar look like scientists about to perform a lab
experiment or engineers inspecting a factory assembly line.

Instead, they are charged with a more solemn task.

They are tagging and assembling debris from Columbia, which carried their
space program colleagues until the shuttle disintegrated 38 miles over Texas
on Feb. 1, killing all seven astronauts.

It's an emotional task for the 300 engineers and technicians who work in two
shifts. Many of them know the space shuttle intimately. They did
maintenance work on Columbia and assembled its various parts.

They are now responsible for putting together its broken pieces so that
investigators can figure out what went wrong. The debris will then be
placed in its final resting place - a former missile silo near where the
remains of space shuttle Challenger are located.

Many of the Kennedy Space Center employees went to Texas to help in the
search for the debris.

"We're closely tied to each of these vehicles emotionally," said shuttle
technician Peter Nader, who helped in the search in Hatfield, Texas. "It
has been traumatic. A lot of us are very upset by it and we're hoping and
praying the families of the astronauts will continue to support the
program."

The workers go about their tasks efficiently. But there are constant
reminders of the tragedy.

An enclosed corner of the hangar containing objects from the shuttle's crew
compartment is treated like sacred ground. A sign on the door reads: "The
Flight Crew area contains sensitive material." A mission patch and an
American flag hang over the door.

The surrounding wall has been transformed into a mini-shrine decorated with
sympathy cards from school children. "Our prayers are with the families and
friends of the space shuttle Columbia," reads one card.

The shuttle reconstruction gives employees something to do so they don't sit
idle while the space shuttle fleet is grounded indefinitely.

"I wouldn't know what I would do without them," NASA Administrator Sean
O'Keefe said of the Kennedy workers this week.

Boxes of debris have been arriving on long flatbed and cargo trucks every
couple of days for the past two weeks. They are unloaded and their contents
of sheared metal, hollowed tubes and rubber are unwrapped. If they're
dirty, the pieces are washed outside before being brought into the hangar.

Once inside, the scraps of metal, tiles and piles of rubber are inspected by
workers wearing gloves and protective eyewear to prevent any contact from
hazardous materials.

Some workers crouch over the larger objects. Others move the scraps and
large metallic globes on wooden pallets using dollies. Small objects,
including wing tiles, are placed in gray plastic boxes with transparent
lids.

The canvas for the employees' work is a grid mapped out in blue and yellow
tape on the 188-foot-by-166-foot floor. The names of sections of the
shuttle are taped to orange traffic cones to help workers figure out where
to place pieces.

The workers are most interested in parts from the shuttle's lower section,
kept for identification on so-called "bread racks," likes those at a bakery.

From afar, the scene looks like a busy ant colony. In one corner, workers
type data about the debris into computers lining a wall. Nearby, others
place bar codes on the debris for tracking. More workers examine the pieces
on long, folding tables.

More than a quarter of the floor is covered with tire rubber, delicate
thermal tiles and large, silver fuel cell globes.

Only about 10 percent of the shuttle's weight, 270,000 pounds, has been
recovered, or about 8,110 pieces of debris. Of that, 5,297 pieces have been
identified.

The widest area of the grid is reserved for the fuselage structure. The
heaviest pieces brought to the hangar, so far, have been the shuttle's main
engine turbopumps weighing about 600 pounds each.

Members of the accident investigation board say it's only a matter of time
before the broken pieces start coming together like a jigsaw puzzle to
provide answers.

"The data and twisted metal are speaking to us," board member Scott Hubbard
said recently. "And we're just developing the ears to hear."


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