Human remains believed to be from the crew of the Columbia have been found in Hemphill, Texas, police said, as the recovery efforts following Saturday’s disastrous loss of the US space shuttle continued.
”I can confirm human remains from the space shuttle Columbia have been found in the debris,” said Karen Steele, representative for Hemphill police.
Steele refused to give other details on the find, only noting that federal, state and local authorities ”are working in coordination to gather evidence, remains and debris from the shuttle disaster.”
Billy Smith, emergency manager in Hemphill, said meanwhile that ”no comment will be made concerning the human remains out of respect for the family of the shuttle crew.”
Smith said at least one large piece of debris had been found underwater in the area on Saturday.
Nasa lost contact with Columbia at 8am on Saturday as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 200 000 feet over Texas on its way to landing at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Stunned Nasa officials at Mission Control stood in front of their computers, staring silently at their screens, as pictures of the craft disintegrating were beamed in shortly after radio contact was lost, 16 minutes before it was due to land at the centre.
Last night, President George Bush was preparing for an emergency meeting with his chiefs of staff at the White House following the disaster. A senior administration official said of Columbia: ‘It’s gone. All on board are lost.’
The shocked wives, husbands and children of the astronauts who had been waiting at the landing strip were taken to secluded place. ‘A contingency for the space shuttle has been declared, ‘ Mission Control repeated over and over, as no word or data came from Columbia.
As pictures were flashed round the world, witnesses in Texas reported hearing a ‘big bang’ shortly after 2pm GMT and dramatic footage showed the shuttle ablaze and breaking up at 200 000ft. Clouds of vapour trailed along beside the disintegrating craft.
The break-up could be seen and heard from the ground as the spacecraft’s single starburst gradually split into a firework of streaks. At first, the starburst broke into two, each with its own plume. Then they, too, began to splinter.
Amid a deepening sense of gloom in America, there was speculation last night that an earlier accident on Columbia could have loosened a heat-resistant tile, which was supposed to ensure the craft did not catch fire as a result of the friction generated by re-entering the atmosphere.
Shortly after Columbia lifted off, two weeks ago, a piece of insulating foam on its external fuel tank came off and was believed to have struck the left wing of the shuttle, possibly loosening a tile.
Leroy Cain, the lead flight director in Mission Control, gave assurances hours before the explosion that engineers had concluded that any damage was considered minor and posed no safety hazard.
Security had been tight for the 16-day scientific research mission because of the presence of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut.
Ramon, an Israeli air force colonel and a former fighter pilot, became the first man from his country to fly in space, and his presence resulted in increased security, not only for Columbia’s launch, but also for its landing.
Bush was briefed about the disaster soon after radio contact was lost, but officials last night ruled out foul play, saying it had ‘no significance’, given the speed and altitude of the craft when it broke up.
However, as the country mourned, it emerged last night that Bush and senior officials were warned that Nasa was facing an unprecedented crisis over its safety management and was in danger of a ‘catastrophic disaster’ during a shuttle mission.
In a series of public interventions, senators, aerospace experts, the US government’s own general audit office and even former Nasa engineers have warned over the past two years that budget problems at Nasa had made safety improvements ‘optional’.
Witnesses described how they heard a loud bang before Columbia broke up. ‘I could see two bright objects flying off each side of it,’ said Gary Hunzike, a local man. ‘I just assumed they were chase jets.’
John Ferolito (60) of Carrolton, north of Dallas, added: ‘I was getting ready to go out and I heard a big bang and the windows shook. I thought it was a sonic boom.’
Another witness told CNN: ‘We heard a rumble. It eventually got to where our house was shaking. It lasted for about a minute and a half. It felt like you lived with a railroad in your backyard. ‘
Immediately after the shuttle was seen breaking up, Nasa said it had scrambled rescue units to search for the shuttle and its astronauts.
It was almost 17 years to the day that the Challenger shuttle exploded — on 28 January, 1986 — killing all seven astronauts. Columbia, Nasa’s oldest shuttle, first flew in 1981.
In 42 years of American space flight, there had never been an accident during the descent to Earth or landing.
Weather forecasters had predicted clear skies and light winds at the Kennedy Space Centre. Nasa headquarters said there had been no reported difficulties from the shuttle before it lost contact with ground control.
Columbia’s crew had completed 80-plus scientific research experiments during their time in orbit.
Michael Anderson, one of the astronauts aboard Columbia, said in an interview shortly before the fateful trip: ‘When you launch in a rocket, you’re not really flying that rocket. You’re just sort of hanging on. You’re really taking an explosion and you’re trying to control it. You’re trying to harness that energy in a way that will propel you into space.
‘And we’re very successful in doing that. But there are a million things that can go wrong.’
Hemphill, in eastern Texas, is located some 50 kilometres southeast of Nacogdoches in Sabine County, where various pieces of charred, twisted debris from Columbia have been recovered.
Across Savine County, where Hemphill is located, Smith said some 127 sites have been reported to have debris. Authorities repeatedly urged residents — including prospective souvenir hunters — to refrain from touching debris from the shuttle, which may be covered with toxic substances found in propellants used aboard the spacecraft.
”There have been reports of 36 people hospitalised due to handling debris,” Smith said late on Saturday.
Authorities hastened to add that removal of debris is considered tampering with evidence and could be punishable by imprisonment, a fine or both. – Sapa-AFP, Guardian Unlimited Â