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Crews Search in Rain for Shuttle Debris

Posted on: Thursday, 6 February 2003, 06:00 CST

By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press Writer

NAGCOGOCHES, Texas - Rain-drenched searchers trudging through the muddy forests and fields of East Texas pulled up a circuit board believed to be from the space shuttle Columbia but mostly recovered small pieces Thursday as they tried to find clues to what caused the shuttle's destruction.

So far, none of more than 12,000 individual pieces found in a debris field across 38 counties and two dozen Louisiana parishes has provided the critical answers NASA is looking for. And experts worried that sensitive pieces could ended up buried in mud or degrade if left exposed to the rain.

"Obviously the weather is a significant factor for us, but we are continuing on," Nacogdoches County Judge Sue Kennedy said.

The shuttle was composed of about 2 million parts, many of which shattered into pieces as small as a nickel.

For NASA's investigation, the key parts will be the data recorders, certain tiles and parts from the left wing where sensors showed a temperature rise before the shuttle broke over Texas on Saturday.

Any debris discovered west of Texas will also be important in determining which parts of the shuttle came apart first. Investigators Thursday were checking reports of debris in California, south of San Francisco, but none had been confirmed as shuttle parts.

Clad in long yellow raincoats and cowboy hats with protective covering, volunteers and NASA-trained searchers scoured the ground in East Texas for even the tiniest pieces. Divers also went into the Toledo Bend Reservoir, where a piece of debris the size of a compact car was reportedly seen.

David Bary, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman, said searchers had stopped counting the individual pieces found when they reached 12,000. The parts include the shuttle's nose cone and at least two possible wing sections, though it wasn't know which side of the shuttle they came from.

"We're simply consolidating the material and preparing it for shipment to Barksdale Air Force Base," said Bary, whose agency oversees collection of the material.

All the shuttle wreckage eventually will be returned to Cape Canaveral, Fla., as the final resting ground. The Challenger debris is buried in a pair of abandoned missile silos at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to Kennedy Space Center.

Federal prosecutors were offering amnesty through Friday night for anyone to turn over shuttle debris they might have taken illegally. Two people have been charged.

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