Experts Work to ID

By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer

Some remains from the seven-member crew of the space shuttle Columbia have been recovered in rural east Texas, and forensics experts think the astronauts could be genetically identified despite the orbiter’s disintegration 39 miles overhead.

NASA officials said Sunday that there have been at least three reports of local officials finding body parts found on farmland and along rural roads near the Texas-Louisiana state line. That’s the same region where the search for shuttle debris is concentrating.

Among the remains recovered are a charred torso, thigh bone and skull with front teeth, and a charred leg. An empty astronaut’s helmet also could contain some genetic traces.

“Remains of some astronauts have been found,” said Eileen Hawley, a spokeswoman for Johnson Space Center. But the space agency gave out few other details.

Bob Cabana, director of flight crew operations, had said earlier Sunday that remains of all seven astronauts had been found, but later corrected himself.

The remains may be analyzed at the same center that identified the remains of the Challenger astronauts and the Pentagon victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Officials had initially said identification would be done at Dover, but a base spokeswoman, Lt. Olivia Nelson, said Sunday: “Things are a little more tentative now. We’re just not sure at this point.”

She said she didn’t know where else the remains might be sent.

Israel’s U.S. ambassador was in Houston conferring with NASA officials about the remains of astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was an Israeli fighter pilot. Under Jewish law, mourners normally must bury their dead within 24 hours, then immediately begin observing a mourning ritual.

Experts said the identification process for the seven astronauts who died in the accident may depend on DNA testing.

“DNA analysis certainly can do it if there are any cells left,” said Carrie Whitcomb, director of the National Center for Forensic Science in Orlando, Fla. “If there is enough tissue to pick up, then there are lots of cells.”

Nor does the DNA have to come from soft tissue.

“Identification can be made with hair and bone, too,” said University of Texas physicist Manfred Fink. “Unless the body was very badly burned, there is no reason why there shouldn’t be remains and it should not hinder the work.”

DNA isn’t the only tool available. Despite the extreme nature of the accident, simpler identification methods, such as fingerprints, can b