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American Morning

Special Edition, Part VI

Aired February 02, 2003 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our special AMERICAN MORNING, Sunday version. I'm Paula Zahn along with Bill Hemmer. You've probably seen some of your own local headlines this morning. We want to share with you, real quickly, some of what readers in the Los Angeles Times are seeing this morning. "The Columbia is lost." The same headline in "The Washington Post" this morning, "Columbia is lost."
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Insert of that "Washington Post," a picture of the parents of one of the captains on board the space shuttle. Dorothy and Paul Brown talking about their son, Captain David Brown. "Daily News," "Shuttle Tragedy" and below the fold, "Again," a clear reference to the Challenger of 1986.

ZAHN: You were on your way back from Kuwait at the -- hours after this had happened. You were on board a plane and what happened.

HEMMER: We were 35,000 feet above the Atlantic. One of the pilots on board the plane was listening to Voice of America. They got very few details, very scant details. They came by and told us because they recognized Adam Reese (ph), my producer, and me coming back from Kuwait and gave us a few details coming back.

What I found interesting, though, the pilot of the plane actually announced to the people on board 30 minutes before we landed what had happened. Personally, I didn't think that was a great decision to do that before we got back.

ZAHN: What was the reaction of the passengers?

HEMMER: Pretty interesting. Most people it was stunned silence, you know, they just took it in. There was one woman who her mouth was clearly open and she was taken back, like so many people across the country, as a result of the news. Interesting how they would make that decision to announce it before we get back on the earth, back in JFK, anyway. Nonetheless, that was how it went down on our flight yesterday.

ZAHN: Chilling piece of information as you're getting ready to land in a plane flying at 35,000 feet. Time to go back down to the Kennedy Space Center. Daryn Kagan on duty this morning where there is a lot to talk about. Good morning, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to both of you, Paula and Bill. I want to add one more headline to what you're looking at. This is a special section that was put out late last night by the "Orlando Sentinel." Of course, your eyes are going to go to the big word "Disaster," but, across here, the face of the seven astronauts, important not to forget what this is about, and that is the faces and the seven lives that were lost yesterday.

I want to take you outside Kennedy Space Center right now, about 15, 20 miles from where I stand, Cocoa Beach. This is a church service going on right now, Cocoa Beach Community Church. Earlier they had an organist playing "America the Beautiful." I believe at the pulpit right now is Rodney Ketchum (ph). He is the president of the church board. By the way, this is the oldest church in the area, it's been going since 1947, small congregation, only about 250 people. I think this is indicative of what you're going to see, not just here in this area, across Florida, but all across the country as Sunday services begin. Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Thanks, Daryn. We'll be coming back to you throughout the morning -- Bill.

HEMMER: One thing certainly the families have to deal with right now is coming to terms with the disaster, especially painful for those who knew people on board. We want to get to Amarillo, Texas, that is the hometown of the commander of the Columbia mission. Elizabeth Cohen is with us there now. Elizabeth, good morning to you.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning. Bill, this is the Polk Street Methodist Church in Amarillo. This is the church where Rick Husband grew up and at this church today, they're having a ceremony both of mourning and of celebration. Celebration of the man who grew up in this town, went to high school here, considered it home. Here in the Amarillo local paper they have "An Amarillo hero called home." A picture with his shuttle family on the top and with his real family in the middle. Children Laura, now 12, Matthew, now eight, and his wife Evelyn. A hero called home. We have here with us a family friend of the Husband's, Patty Ragan. Mrs. Ragan's family has been friends with the Husbands for three generations.

PATTY RAGAN, HUSBAND FAMILY FRIEND: That's right.

COHEN: And you were telling me that Rick Husband wanted to be an astronaut from the time he was four years old.

RAGAN: From the time he was a little boy, he wanted to be an astronaut and worked to do that from that point.

COHEN: And he was a man of great faith. He grew up in this church, and you know his favorite piece of scripture. Could you read that?

RAGAN: I will. I'd be happy to. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord."

COHEN: And he lived by that.

RAGAN: He lived by that.

COHEN: And in what way?

RAGAN: He put himself into everything he did with a full heart and whatever was necessary to achieve his goals, he was willing to do that.

COHEN: You knew him as a little boy. Did he stand out even then as beingÉ

RAGAN: Always, always, through school, high school, college, and of course, since college, yes, he did. He was a leader at Amarillo High School, and did many, many good things. He's a man of God and he is -- has always led people to God and wants people to know God.

COHEN: And your daughter and son-in-law were on our show earlier today and are with the Husband family now. How are Lynn and the children doing?

RAGAN: As well as possible, a good minute and a bad minute following, but as well as possible. Evelyn also is a faithful child of God and is teaching her children.

COHEN: Thank you, Patty Ragan, a family friend of Rick Husband. And in Amarillo, they'll continue to mourn the hometown hero who left here many years ago to go to college, to go to graduate school, to train and ultimately, to go up to the skies. Bill.

HEMMER: So much amazing talent. Elizabeth, thank you. Elizabeth Cohen, there in Amarillo.

Also at a church in Houston, friends of shuttle Commander Rick Husband and Mission Specialist Michael Anderson struggling, again, with their grief today. Rusty Dornin is at their church on a Sunday morning for us. Rusty, hello.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, a lot of folks are just arriving for the service which is scheduled to get underway in about a half-hour here at the Grace Community Church. Astronauts Mike Anderson and Rick Husband were both not just active members of this church, but also really provided a lot of inspiration here, and there's a lot of folks who are coming here to do some soul searching.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I think there's a whole lot of questions, and some of them we won't be able to answer this side of heaven. There's some answers we just won't get our hands on. But at the same time, both Rick and Mike made statements here in the sendoff that we did for them before the mission, and really made it very plain and clear that their foundation is their faith in Jesus Christ and that that is the hope they've built into their families that has seen the families through this difficult time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Obviously the folks here are not the only ones struggling with this. Here in Houston, it's a big city, but it's really a small town when it comes to the whole space program. It's the pride and joy of this town, it provides a lot of inspiration, and you can just see by the headlines how people feel about this tragic, very tragic event.

Now, there will be three services here. We are told that the two astronauts and their families will be the subject of the portion of those services, and we will be dipping in live to show you some of those inspirational speeches -- Bill.

HEMMER: Rusty, many thanks. Rusty Dornin in Houston -- Paula.

ZAHN: Already this disaster has raised some very difficult questions about the future of the manned space program. Should the government continue spending money on the space shuttle and the international space station? Those are questions for space policy analyst Nick Fuhrman, who joins us from our headquarters in Atlanta. Good morning, Nick, thanks for being with us.

NICK FUHRMAN, CNN SPACE POLICY ANALYST: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: I wanted to share with you what is a very important story in "TIME" magazine, just out today. The title of the article is "The space shuttle must be stopped." Underneath it, "It's costly, outmoded, impractical, and as we've learned again, deadly." Your reaction to that assessment.

FUHRMAN: I think that the space shuttle is going to fly again. I know you're going to have a debate. I'm surprised it's occurring so soon after the tragedy. Families are just going to church this morning. I'm a little surprised that "TIME" magazine would jump the gun. On the other hand, it's a debate that we have had throughout the government for many, many years. When I worked in Congress, people would ask, is this worth the risk? Is it worth the cost? And we always came back to the fact that, you know, humans and support and public interest in the space program is largely built around the human element, going to space, living and working in space. Being a society that's free and sophisticated enough to actually create and invent these things, our ingeniousness is very much a part of our spirit. I don't think it's going to go away.

ZAHN: You say the shuttle will fly again, and yet, we had Representative Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin on a little bit earlier this morning who said it is his hope that ultimately the United States will transition into an orbital space plane. What are the chances of that happening, given the budget constraints of NASA right now?

FUHRMAN: I would never disagree with my former boss. On the other hand, the space shuttle is built, it's the one that flies. We have a space station. We have a commitment to be in space for a long time, and definitely if this tragedy brings anything about, it will be a desire to put resources into this program that have not been there for really the last ten years. To invent our way out of the space shuttle, which is, you know a 35-year-old technology.

ZAHN: So where do you see the political debate going, as insensitive as you find it. But clearly you could hear those questions even being asked of NASA administrators yesterday, hours after we learned what had happened.

FUHRMAN: Certainly the environment's changed. We want immediate answers, we want to know the cause right away. We want to go fly as soon as we can isolate this to a unique event about this particular flight and say it's not endemic to the system. I would say, if we have a new space plane, or space shuttle, or orbiting vehicle, it has to have a lot less than a million individual signatures and approvals to fly it. A system as gargantuan, as the space shuttle, with a million sign-offs and approvals, is just statistically prone to failure.

ZAHN: And a final personal thought for you, as someone who has been very -- in the serious business of watching NASA and its progress and projects.

FUHRMAN: Well, the people who build this shuttle and put it together literally by hand for every flight have to -- people have to understand that this is going to be a large family experience that goes beyond just the astronauts. This is the whole NASA community that is being tested and they've always risen to the challenge, and I think they will in this process be able to convince the American people that the shuttles are safe enough to fly again as we move forward to a new system.

ZAHN: Nick Fuhrman, thanks so much for your perspective this morning. Good of you to join us.

Coming up, right after the short break, a news alert. Also, did the trouble with the Columbia launch lead to problems upon reentry. We're going to have more on the investigations and what we might expect. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Was Columbia's fate changed during liftoff? That's when some debris apparently sheared away, hitting the left wing of the shuttle. Right now, all speculation right now, no clear answers but the answer to that may take months or even longer. Author and science journalist Andrew Chaikin now joins us in Boston with some insight into how the investigation may proceed from here. Nice to see you, sir. Good morning to you.

ANDREW CHAIKIN, SCIENCE JOURNALIST: Thank you, Bill. It's good to be here.

HEMMER: In a very basic way, there are tiles, about 20,000 of them on the exterior of the shuttle. What are they made of? Why are they so critical, Andrew?

CHAIKIN: The tiles are made of silica, which is pretty much the same as beach sand, only it's processed in such a way as to be extremely pure and it has the property of being extremely heat resistant. In fact, you can put one of those tiles into an oven until it glows white hot and then take it out, and if you're very careful, you can hold it in an unprotected hand, at least by the corners. Like so many aspects of the shuttle, those tiles are an engineering marvel. And I think we have to recognize, by the way, that when people talk about the shuttle as a 35-year-old technology, we have to understand that many aspects of the shuttle are state-of- the-art. For example, Bill, the engines that help boost the shuttle into space, they've been improved over the years. Even now, they are state-of-the-art. By the way, many people thought if there was a shuttle accident, it would be those engines, and so far we've had problems with the solid rocket boosters; we've had problems with reentry. The engines have given us close calls, but no real serious moments.

HEMMER: Just to be clear, and correct any of these facts I'm laying out here if I'm wrong, upon reentry into the earth's atmosphere, temperatures could exceed 2,000 degrees, possibly borderline 3,000, and that's when the tiles, acting essentially as insulation for the shuttle, become so critical. Correct?

CHAIKIN: The tiles are the safety measure between life and death as the shuttle makes that fiery plunge into the atmosphere. There is no way to avoid that heating. All you can do is try to minimize it which is what the shuttle design is supposed to do.

HEMMER: OK. That takes me to my next few points. Here's what I want to know. If indeed there was some shearing of material that hit the left wing, why was it not considered a sense of urgent matter at that time? In order -- the shuttle mission to continue, and go as essentially as the schedule laid out for them.

CHAIKIN: I can't speak to that. You're getting me outside my area of understanding here, but all I can tell you is, that whatever the problem was on that shuttle, it was not for lack of attention. Every one of those shuttles gets enormous tender loving care between flights and NASA is, for an agency that lives and breathes by managing risk, NASA is very cautious about accepting that risk.

And I would like to just divert from this point to make a larger point, if I may, Bill. And I think what we need to do as a country is have a national conversation about space. And you know, ever sense 9/11 I think this country has understood the necessity of taking risks in our daily lives, but space exploration is about accepting risk for the life of the human species and the preservation of the species.

HEMMER: A point well-taken. The other question I have here, it became evident yesterday. Is it true there is no space walking ability for the shuttle astronauts to investigate the tiles once they are in orbit? And if that is the case, why not?

CHAIKIN: The tiles have been a concern ever since before the first shuttle flew, and I remember back during the first shuttle flight, they were talking about if you lose a tile, can you go outside and fill it in with some kind of a resin compound?

One thing, there are no hand holds to allow the astronaut to get down to that bottom side of the shuttle where the brunt of the reentry heating is, or the leading edge of the wings, for example. So the attitude has been that this is one of the things that you try and make sure works, and if you have a problem on orbit, you have to live with it. If you lose a tile, there is nothing that they can do, and that is just part of the game. I mean this is part of the risk that we take in sending humans into space in that vehicle.

HEMMER: It is fascinating. Andrew Chaikin in Boston. Come back this week. We have a multitude of questions for you. But thank you for your time this morning.

CHAIKIN: Anytime, Bill, thank you.

HEMMER: You've got it, thank you. Paula.

ZAHN: I think we could probably spend the next three hours with him, he's so knowledgeable. We're going to take a short break, and while the investigations go on, officials at NASA and the White House look for answers. What about all the people involved? Coming up, visitors continue to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as they look for their own answers and pay tribute to some very special fallen heroes. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: They have now released the names of the 10 member space shuttle accident investigation board here at NASA headquarters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Admiral Harold Gehman, retired U.S. Admiral from the Navy, he'll chair. He'll be the leader of this ten-member board of investigation, presumably only the first of several investigations that will begin to try to understand what went wrong aboard the space shuttle Columbia.

CNN's Gary Tuchman is over at the Kennedy Space Center. He's gauging reaction over there as well. About 24 hours or so ago, a little bit more than 24 hours, that space shuttle was supposed to land where you are, Gary. How are the folks doing?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're right, Wolf, this was the very hour that the space shuttle Columbia was supposed to land on the runway, just across the street from us here, at the Kennedy Space Center. Instead, hundreds of people, many of whom were here yesterday to watch the landing of the space shuttle are instead paying homage. And they're doing it at the most appropriate place.

This is the black granite memorial wall. It's the memorial for all the astronauts who have been killed in the service of their country. 17 astronauts, ten of them died in accidents on test flights before they ever got into space. The other names that you see up there, including Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, died either in the Challenger disaster in 1986, or the test pad fire 1967 in which three astronauts died.

People have been coming here all day to leave flowers, to leave candles. You can see over here U.S. flags have been left here. We want to bring you over here, to where a book has been put out that people are actually signing to leave their wishes inside here. People are saying, for example, "God bless the astronauts that lost their lives for us." We want to take you over here to two people who are from Austria, on vacation, their first time in the United States. Tell me how you felt, being here right now, looking at the memorial and knowing what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got two different kinds of feelings. It's all mixed. At once I'm very, very sad of losing those nice people, I think. On the other side, I'm very, very proud of them that they gave their life for the whole world, and the whole world should be proud of them, the whole family of them, and the whole NASA should be proud, and they should not stop this.

TUCHMAN: Thank you for talking with us. Obviously a lot of people thought they would be here for a happy occasion yesterday, and instead, it's much different.

Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: Gary Tuchman, thanks very much. And here at the Johnson Space Center, a very close knit NASA community. Many members of that community right now attending church services in this greater Houston area. We'll be speaking to some of them later throughout the course of the day. Don't forget 1:00 PM Eastern, around that time, we expect a full scale NASA briefing, the second major briefing on what happened. Back to Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Wolf. Many thanks. If you were with us yesterday, that first NASA briefing, Paula, really fascinating. Not only the answers but the questions. And the detail that is involved in this investigation, going forward, it will be very, very intense.

ZAHN: Someone was making a point that the tenor of the questions was so different from what we heard in '86, that NASA learned a very powerful lesson after the Challenger exploded about what they should share with the public soon after a disaster.

Thank you so much for joining us. This special edition of AMERICAN MORNING will continue in the next hour. We're going to take a short break. Hope you'll stay with us on to the other side. We'll be right back.

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Aired February 2, 2003 - 09:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our special AMERICAN MORNING, Sunday version. I'm Paula Zahn along with Bill Hemmer. You've probably seen some of your own local headlines this morning. We want to share with you, real quickly, some of what readers in the Los Angeles Times are seeing this morning. "The Columbia is lost." The same headline in "The Washington Post" this morning, "Columbia is lost."
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Insert of that "Washington Post," a picture of the parents of one of the captains on board the space shuttle. Dorothy and Paul Brown talking about their son, Captain David Brown. "Daily News," "Shuttle Tragedy" and below the fold, "Again," a clear reference to the Challenger of 1986.

ZAHN: You were on your way back from Kuwait at the -- hours after this had happened. You were on board a plane and what happened.

HEMMER: We were 35,000 feet above the Atlantic. One of the pilots on board the plane was listening to Voice of America. They got very few details, very scant details. They came by and told us because they recognized Adam Reese (ph), my producer, and me coming back from Kuwait and gave us a few details coming back.

What I found interesting, though, the pilot of the plane actually announced to the people on board 30 minutes before we landed what had happened. Personally, I didn't think that was a great decision to do that before we got back.

ZAHN: What was the reaction of the passengers?

HEMMER: Pretty interesting. Most people it was stunned silence, you know, they just took it in. There was one woman who her mouth was clearly open and she was taken back, like so many people across the country, as a result of the news. Interesting how they would make that decision to announce it before we get back on the earth, back in JFK, anyway. Nonetheless, that was how it went down on our flight yesterday.

ZAHN: Chilling piece of information as you're getting ready to land in a plane flying at 35,000 feet. Time to go back down to the Kennedy Space Center. Daryn Kagan on duty this morning where there is a lot to talk about. Good morning, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to both of you, Paula and Bill. I want to add one more headline to what you're looking at. This is a special section that was put out late last night by the "Orlando Sentinel." Of course, your eyes are going to go to the big word "Disaster," but, across here, the face of the seven astronauts, important not to forget what this is about, and that is the faces and the seven lives that were lost yesterday.

I want to take you outside Kennedy Space Center right now, about 15, 20 miles from where I stand, Cocoa Beach. This is a church service going on right now, Cocoa Beach Community Church. Earlier they had an organist playing "America the Beautiful." I believe at the pulpit right now is Rodney Ketchum (ph). He is the president of the church board. By the way, this is the oldest church in the area, it's been going since 1947, small congregation, only about 250 people. I think this is indicative of what you're going to see, not just here in this area, across Florida, but all across the country as Sunday services begin. Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Thanks, Daryn. We'll be coming back to you throughout the morning -- Bill.

HEMMER: One thing certainly the families have to deal with right now is coming to terms with the disaster, especially painful for those who knew people on board. We want to get to Amarillo, Texas, that is the hometown of the commander of the Columbia mission. Elizabeth Cohen is with us there now. Elizabeth, good morning to you.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning. Bill, this is the Polk Street Methodist Church in Amarillo. This is the church where Rick Husband grew up and at this church today, they're having a ceremony both of mourning and of celebration. Celebration of the man who grew up in this town, went to high school here, considered it home. Here in the Amarillo local paper they have "An Amarillo hero called home." A picture with his shuttle family on the top and with his real family in the middle. Children Laura, now 12, Matthew, now eight, and his wife Evelyn. A hero called home. We have here with us a family friend of the Husband's, Patty Ragan. Mrs. Ragan's family has been friends with the Husbands for three generations.

PATTY RAGAN, HUSBAND FAMILY FRIEND: That's right.

COHEN: And you were telling me that Rick Husband wanted to be an astronaut from the time he was four years old.

RAGAN: From the time he was a little boy, he wanted to be an astronaut and worked to do that from that point.

COHEN: And he was a man of great faith. He grew up in this church, and you know his favorite piece of scripture. Could you read that?

RAGAN: I will. I'd be happy to. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord."

COHEN: And he lived by that.

RAGAN: He lived by that.

COHEN: And in what way?

RAGAN: He put himself into everything he did with a full heart and whatever was necessary to achieve his goals, he was willing to do that.

COHEN: You knew him as a little boy. Did he stand out even then as beingÉ

RAGAN: Always, always, through school, high school, college, and of course, since college, yes, he did. He was a leader at Amarillo High School, and did many, many good things. He's a man of God and he is -- has always led people to God and wants people to know God.

COHEN: And your daughter and son-in-law were on our show earlier today and are with the Husband family now. How are Lynn and the children doing?

RAGAN: As well as possible, a good minute and a bad minute following, but as well as possible. Evelyn also is a faithful child of God and is teaching her children.

COHEN: Thank you, Patty Ragan, a family friend of Rick Husband. And in Amarillo, they'll continue to mourn the hometown hero who left here many years ago to go to college, to go to graduate school, to train and ultimately, to go up to the skies. Bill.

HEMMER: So much amazing talent. Elizabeth, thank you. Elizabeth Cohen, there in Amarillo.

Also at a church in Houston, friends of shuttle Commander Rick Husband and Mission Specialist Michael Anderson struggling, again, with their grief today. Rusty Dornin is at their church on a Sunday morning for us. Rusty, hello.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, a lot of folks are just arriving for the service which is scheduled to get underway in about a half-hour here at the Grace Community Church. Astronauts Mike Anderson and Rick Husband were both not just active members of this church, but also really provided a lot of inspiration here, and there's a lot of folks who are coming here to do some soul searching.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I think there's a whole lot of questions, and some of them we won't be able to answer this side of heaven. There's some answers we just won't get our hands on. But at the same time, both Rick and Mike made statements here in the sendoff that we did for them before the mission, and really made it very plain and clear that their foundation is their faith in Jesus Christ and that that is the hope they've built into their families that has seen the families through this difficult time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Obviously the folks here are not the only ones struggling with this. Here in Houston, it's a big city, but it's really a small town when it comes to the whole space program. It's the pride and joy of this town, it provides a lot of inspiration, and you can just see by the headlines how people feel about this tragic, very tragic event.

Now, there will be three services here. We are told that the two astronauts and their families will be the subject of the portion of those services, and we will be dipping in live to show you some of those inspirational speeches -- Bill.

HEMMER: Rusty, many thanks. Rusty Dornin in Houston -- Paula.

ZAHN: Already this disaster has raised some very difficult questions about the future of the manned space program. Should the government continue spending money on the space shuttle and the international space station? Those are questions for space policy analyst Nick Fuhrman, who joins us from our headquarters in Atlanta. Good morning, Nick, thanks for being with us.

NICK FUHRMAN, CNN SPACE POLICY ANALYST: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: I wanted to share with you what is a very important story in "TIME" magazine, just out today. The title of the article is "The space shuttle must be stopped." Underneath it, "It's costly, outmoded, impractical, and as we've learned again, deadly." Your reaction to that assessment.

FUHRMAN: I think that the space shuttle is going to fly again. I know you're going to have a debate. I'm surprised it's occurring so soon after the tragedy. Families are just going to church this morning. I'm a little surprised that "TIME" magazine would jump the gun. On the other hand, it's a debate that we have had throughout the government for many, many years. When I worked in Congress, people would ask, is this worth the risk? Is it worth the cost? And we always came back to the fact that, you know, humans and support and public interest in the space program is largely built around the human element, going to space, living and working in space. Being a society that's free and sophisticated enough to actually create and invent these things, our ingeniousness is very much a part of our spirit. I don't think it's going to go away.

ZAHN: You say the shuttle will fly again, and yet, we had Representative Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin on a little bit earlier this morning who said it is his hope that ultimately the United States will transition into an orbital space plane. What are the chances of that happening, given the budget constraints of NASA right now?

FUHRMAN: I would never disagree with my former boss. On the other hand, the space shuttle is built, it's the one that flies. We have a space station. We have a commitment to be in space for a long time, and definitely if this tragedy brings anything about, it will be a desire to put resources into this program that have not been there for really the last ten years. To invent our way out of the space shuttle, which is, you know a 35-year-old technology.

ZAHN: So where do you see the political debate going, as insensitive as you find it. But clearly you could hear those questions even being asked of NASA administrators yesterday, hours after we learned what had happened.

FUHRMAN: Certainly the environment's changed. We want immediate answers, we want to know the cause right away. We want to go fly as soon as we can isolate this to a unique event about this particular flight and say it's not endemic to the system. I would say, if we have a new space plane, or space shuttle, or orbiting vehicle, it has to have a lot less than a million individual signatures and approvals to fly it. A system as gargantuan, as the space shuttle, with a million sign-offs and approvals, is just statistically prone to failure.

ZAHN: And a final personal thought for you, as someone who has been very -- in the serious business of watching NASA and its progress and projects.

FUHRMAN: Well, the people who build this shuttle and put it together literally by hand for every flight have to -- people have to understand that this is going to be a large family experience that goes beyond just the astronauts. This is the whole NASA community that is being tested and they've always risen to the challenge, and I think they will in this process be able to convince the American people that the shuttles are safe enough to fly again as we move forward to a new system.

ZAHN: Nick Fuhrman, thanks so much for your perspective this morning. Good of you to join us.

Coming up, right after the short break, a news alert. Also, did the trouble with the Columbia launch lead to problems upon reentry. We're going to have more on the investigations and what we might expect. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Was Columbia's fate changed during liftoff? That's when some debris apparently sheared away, hitting the left wing of the shuttle. Right now, all speculation right now, no clear answers but the answer to that may take months or even longer. Author and science journalist Andrew Chaikin now joins us in Boston with some insight into how the investigation may proceed from here. Nice to see you, sir. Good morning to you.

ANDREW CHAIKIN, SCIENCE JOURNALIST: Thank you, Bill. It's good to be here.

HEMMER: In a very basic way, there are tiles, about 20,000 of them on the exterior of the shuttle. What are they made of? Why are they so critical, Andrew?

CHAIKIN: The tiles are made of silica, which is pretty much the same as beach sand, only it's processed in such a way as to be extremely pure and it has the property of being extremely heat resistant. In fact, you can put one of those tiles into an oven until it glows white hot and then take it out, and if you're very careful, you can hold it in an unprotected hand, at least by the corners. Like so many aspects of the shuttle, those tiles are an engineering marvel. And I think we have to recognize, by the way, that when people talk about the shuttle as a 35-year-old technology, we have to understand that many aspects of the shuttle are state-of- the-art. For example, Bill, the engines that help boost the shuttle into space, they've been improved over the years. Even now, they are state-of-the-art. By the way, many people thought if there was a shuttle accident, it would be those engines, and so far we've had problems with the solid rocket boosters; we've had problems with reentry. The engines have given us close calls, but no real serious moments.

HEMMER: Just to be clear, and correct any of these facts I'm laying out here if I'm wrong, upon reentry into the earth's atmosphere, temperatures could exceed 2,000 degrees, possibly borderline 3,000, and that's when the tiles, acting essentially as insulation for the shuttle, become so critical. Correct?

CHAIKIN: The tiles are the safety measure between life and death as the shuttle makes that fiery plunge into the atmosphere. There is no way to avoid that heating. All you can do is try to minimize it which is what the shuttle design is supposed to do.

HEMMER: OK. That takes me to my next few points. Here's what I want to know. If indeed there was some shearing of material that hit the left wing, why was it not considered a sense of urgent matter at that time? In order -- the shuttle mission to continue, and go as essentially as the schedule laid out for them.

CHAIKIN: I can't speak to that. You're getting me outside my area of understanding here, but all I can tell you is, that whatever the problem was on that shuttle, it was not for lack of attention. Every one of those shuttles gets enormous tender loving care between flights and NASA is, for an agency that lives and breathes by managing risk, NASA is very cautious about accepting that risk.

And I would like to just divert from this point to make a larger point, if I may, Bill. And I think what we need to do as a country is have a national conversation about space. And you know, ever sense 9/11 I think this country has understood the necessity of taking risks in our daily lives, but space exploration is about accepting risk for the life of the human species and the preservation of the species.

HEMMER: A point well-taken. The other question I have here, it became evident yesterday. Is it true there is no space walking ability for the shuttle astronauts to investigate the tiles once they are in orbit? And if that is the case, why not?

CHAIKIN: The tiles have been a concern ever since before the first shuttle flew, and I remember back during the first shuttle flight, they were talking about if you lose a tile, can you go outside and fill it in with some kind of a resin compound?

One thing, there are no hand holds to allow the astronaut to get down to that bottom side of the shuttle where the brunt of the reentry heating is, or the leading edge of the wings, for example. So the attitude has been that this is one of the things that you try and make sure works, and if you have a problem on orbit, you have to live with it. If you lose a tile, there is nothing that they can do, and that is just part of the game. I mean this is part of the risk that we take in sending humans into space in that vehicle.

HEMMER: It is fascinating. Andrew Chaikin in Boston. Come back this week. We have a multitude of questions for you. But thank you for your time this morning.

CHAIKIN: Anytime, Bill, thank you.

HEMMER: You've got it, thank you. Paula.

ZAHN: I think we could probably spend the next three hours with him, he's so knowledgeable. We're going to take a short break, and while the investigations go on, officials at NASA and the White House look for answers. What about all the people involved? Coming up, visitors continue to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as they look for their own answers and pay tribute to some very special fallen heroes. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: They have now released the names of the 10 member space shuttle accident investigation board here at NASA headquarters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Admiral Harold Gehman, retired U.S. Admiral from the Navy, he'll chair. He'll be the leader of this ten-member board of investigation, presumably only the first of several investigations that will begin to try to understand what went wrong aboard the space shuttle Columbia.

CNN's Gary Tuchman is over at the Kennedy Space Center. He's gauging reaction over there as well. About 24 hours or so ago, a little bit more than 24 hours, that space shuttle was supposed to land where you are, Gary. How are the folks doing?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're right, Wolf, this was the very hour that the space shuttle Columbia was supposed to land on the runway, just across the street from us here, at the Kennedy Space Center. Instead, hundreds of people, many of whom were here yesterday to watch the landing of the space shuttle are instead paying homage. And they're doing it at the most appropriate place.

This is the black granite memorial wall. It's the memorial for all the astronauts who have been killed in the service of their country. 17 astronauts, ten of them died in accidents on test flights before they ever got into space. The other names that you see up there, including Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, died either in the Challenger disaster in 1986, or the test pad fire 1967 in which three astronauts died.

People have been coming here all day to leave flowers, to leave candles. You can see over here U.S. flags have been left here. We want to bring you over here, to where a book has been put out that people are actually signing to leave their wishes inside here. People are saying, for example, "God bless the astronauts that lost their lives for us." We want to take you over here to two people who are from Austria, on vacation, their first time in the United States. Tell me how you felt, being here right now, looking at the memorial and knowing what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got two different kinds of feelings. It's all mixed. At once I'm very, very sad of losing those nice people, I think. On the other side, I'm very, very proud of them that they gave their life for the whole world, and the whole world should be proud of them, the whole family of them, and the whole NASA should be proud, and they should not stop this.

TUCHMAN: Thank you for talking with us. Obviously a lot of people thought they would be here for a happy occasion yesterday, and instead, it's much different.

Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: Gary Tuchman, thanks very much. And here at the Johnson Space Center, a very close knit NASA community. Many members of that community right now attending church services in this greater Houston area. We'll be speaking to some of them later throughout the course of the day. Don't forget 1:00 PM Eastern, around that time, we expect a full scale NASA briefing, the second major briefing on what happened. Back to Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Wolf. Many thanks. If you were with us yesterday, that first NASA briefing, Paula, really fascinating. Not only the answers but the questions. And the detail that is involved in this investigation, going forward, it will be very, very intense.

ZAHN: Someone was making a point that the tenor of the questions was so different from what we heard in '86, that NASA learned a very powerful lesson after the Challenger exploded about what they should share with the public soon after a disaster.

Thank you so much for joining us. This special edition of AMERICAN MORNING will continue in the next hour. We're going to take a short break. Hope you'll stay with us on to the other side. We'll be right back.

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