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CNN Live Today

NASA Identifies Wing Part

Aired February 11, 2003 - 11:39   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the latest developments to report in the space shuttle Columbia investigation. NASA has identified what could be the most significant piece of debris recovered so far. It is a portion of the left wing, they've confirmed.
CNN's Brian Cabell joins us now live from Johnson Space Center in Texas with the latest on that -- hello, Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. A focus in this entire investigation is going to shift a little bit tomorrow. They will be holding Congressional hearings with NASA officials tomorrow. That should yield some significant information.

But in the mean time, as you indicate, the search goes on, the analysis goes on, and that most significant find they have so far is a portion of the left wing just a couple of feet long, but it could be very important.

Of course, the left wing was the one that heated up initially, showed some initial problems, and apparently led to the breakup of the shuttle. It was found in Lufkin, Texas a few days ago. It was finally identified yesterday. And, again, analysts are looking at this very, very carefully.

All told, they have 12,000 pieces of debris and counting so far. It's being located -- relocated to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where it is being identified, cataloged and bagged, and readied for shipment to Kennedy Space Center. That's about an 18 or 20-hour drive away. Some of it is on the way right now, and in fact some of it is already arriving there at the Kennedy Space Center, probably will be sometime tomorrow.

Now, initially, after the Columbia broke up several days ago, there were some concerns about the International Space Station. There were two astronauts up there, along with a cosmonaut, and there was worries by some that perhaps they were being stranded, because, after all, they were supposed to be relieved by a shuttle launch in March. That, of course, is not going to happen now, but there is a Soyuz capsule attached to the space station, and they almost certainly will be coming back to earth in that Soyuz, probably in April.

Now, we talked to some of the astronauts and the cosmonaut this morning, the three of them in an extended press conference. They told us they're feeling fine at this point. They do not feel stranded by any means. Emotionally, they've had a bit of a difficult time because they've been following developments down here on the ground. They have been following the disaster of the shuttle. And they said they followed, actually, the memorial service from here at Johnson Space Center a week ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN BOWERSOX, COMMANDER: At the conclusion of that memorial service, after the bells had rung on the ground and the T-38s had flown by, it was very quiet on board, and we rang our ship bell seven times. And at that point, it was very, very quiet on board the international space station.

We spent 15, 20 minutes in silence and then we moved on. We had work to do. We needed to unload our Progress, and at that point we started thinking about good things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: Bottom line is they say they are fine, and they probably will be back on earth here in about two or three months.

As for the investigation, Leon, the theories are still out there but no causes. We don't expect to have any reasonable cause put forward here for at least another couple of weeks, probably several weeks. The NASA administrator says he will give them 60 days to come up with some conclusions as to the cause of this crash -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Thanks, Brian. Appreciate that. Brian Cabell reporting live from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 11, 2003 - 11:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the latest developments to report in the space shuttle Columbia investigation. NASA has identified what could be the most significant piece of debris recovered so far. It is a portion of the left wing, they've confirmed.
CNN's Brian Cabell joins us now live from Johnson Space Center in Texas with the latest on that -- hello, Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. A focus in this entire investigation is going to shift a little bit tomorrow. They will be holding Congressional hearings with NASA officials tomorrow. That should yield some significant information.

But in the mean time, as you indicate, the search goes on, the analysis goes on, and that most significant find they have so far is a portion of the left wing just a couple of feet long, but it could be very important.

Of course, the left wing was the one that heated up initially, showed some initial problems, and apparently led to the breakup of the shuttle. It was found in Lufkin, Texas a few days ago. It was finally identified yesterday. And, again, analysts are looking at this very, very carefully.

All told, they have 12,000 pieces of debris and counting so far. It's being located -- relocated to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where it is being identified, cataloged and bagged, and readied for shipment to Kennedy Space Center. That's about an 18 or 20-hour drive away. Some of it is on the way right now, and in fact some of it is already arriving there at the Kennedy Space Center, probably will be sometime tomorrow.

Now, initially, after the Columbia broke up several days ago, there were some concerns about the International Space Station. There were two astronauts up there, along with a cosmonaut, and there was worries by some that perhaps they were being stranded, because, after all, they were supposed to be relieved by a shuttle launch in March. That, of course, is not going to happen now, but there is a Soyuz capsule attached to the space station, and they almost certainly will be coming back to earth in that Soyuz, probably in April.

Now, we talked to some of the astronauts and the cosmonaut this morning, the three of them in an extended press conference. They told us they're feeling fine at this point. They do not feel stranded by any means. Emotionally, they've had a bit of a difficult time because they've been following developments down here on the ground. They have been following the disaster of the shuttle. And they said they followed, actually, the memorial service from here at Johnson Space Center a week ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN BOWERSOX, COMMANDER: At the conclusion of that memorial service, after the bells had rung on the ground and the T-38s had flown by, it was very quiet on board, and we rang our ship bell seven times. And at that point, it was very, very quiet on board the international space station.

We spent 15, 20 minutes in silence and then we moved on. We had work to do. We needed to unload our Progress, and at that point we started thinking about good things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: Bottom line is they say they are fine, and they probably will be back on earth here in about two or three months.

As for the investigation, Leon, the theories are still out there but no causes. We don't expect to have any reasonable cause put forward here for at least another couple of weeks, probably several weeks. The NASA administrator says he will give them 60 days to come up with some conclusions as to the cause of this crash -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Thanks, Brian. Appreciate that. Brian Cabell reporting live from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com