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According to NASA and FEMA, the search for Columbia debris is expected to continue through 4/30/03, with all diving operations ceased by 4/15/03. Over the10-week period since the loss of Columbia, approximately 4,900 personnel - including employees of NASA, FEMA and 90 other federal, state and local agencies, law enforcement officials at all levels, elements of the US Armed Services, and civilian volunteers - searched over 76 percent of the 621,000-acre search area. are searching for more debris.

 

CAIB Chairman Harold Gehman Jr. (USN Ret.) has officially thanked all involved, especially those who've volunteered, for their efforts in the search. As of 4/15/03, Ground search teams have completed 78 percent of their primary search area, airborne spotters have finished 80 percent of their assigned areas, and underwater search operations finished last week. More than 70,000 items, weighing more than 78,000 pounds, about 37 percent of the Shuttle, by weight, have been delivered to the Kennedy Space Center for use in the mishap investigation.

During visits to the Lufkin Command Center, the Nacogdoches Base Camp, and the Toledo Bend Reservoir Dive Site on 3/24/03, O'Keefe, along with NASA Associate Administer for Space Flight, William F. Readdy, commended the recovery teams for their hard work "The outstanding interagency cooperation, and the hard work of all the individuals working on recovery, has been truly gratifying and inspiring," O'Keefe said. "There has been an untiring, fulltime, and dedicated effort to recover Columbia material. The great recovery work directly supports the efforts of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to determine what caused the Shuttle mishap." During his visit to the Palestine Camp on 4/15/03, O'Keefe reemphasized his appreciation of the recovery efforts; "The response to the Columbia tragedy has been simply overwhelming. Private citizens, local, state and federal agencies have worked so hard to help us get to this point," said O'Keefe. "NASA cannot thank the communities and our government partners enough for what they have done to aid the accident investigation. We have retrieved a large percentage of Columbia, and that will go a long way toward helping solve the puzzle of what happened Feb. 1st. All the participants will forever be a part of the NASA family, and we will try to honor them by returning to flight safely, and as soon as possible." Even with operations nearing an end, O'Keefe noted that there are still items of great interest to NASA and the CAIB being found with regularity. "I was walking with one of the guys here, who just told me that earlier this morning they found a piece of the reinforced carbon-carbon leading edge not far from here, and there was a NASA rep there to identify it, and they've already got it shipped off. Every aspect of this is adding more and more to understand this complex process," O'Keefe said. "It is the policy of the coordinating agencies to 'fast track' certain pieces that could be instrumental to the investigation. If you find something that you really get excited about, you need to make a call," added NASA representative Randy Wade.

As of 4/15/03, officials with NASA, FEMA, and the CAIB are finalizing plans to create a Columbia Recovery Office (CRO) at Johnson Space Center, Houston. The CRO will assume responsibility for management of recovery and community liaison activities. The Disaster Field Office in Lufkin, Texas, the central planning and command center for the search, is expected to close in early May 2003. NASA and FEMA are working with partner agencies to close the four Incident Command Posts and the Mobilization and Staging Area. The U.S. and Texas Forest Services managed the Incident Command Posts, and they are expected to close the first of the camps in late April. Camps are located in Hemphill, Nacogdoches, Palestine and Corsicana, Texas. NASA had previously consolidated two of the primary search coordination field offices and established four incident command posts and base camps. Immediately after the accident, NASA established several different local command  and coordination field offices at Barksdale Air Force Base at Shreveport, La., the Lufkin Emergency Operations Center in Lufkin, Texas, and Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base (Carswell Field), Fort Worth, Texas. These three sites were fully consolidated at Lufkin by 3/01/03.

Add another shot of search efforts

The U.S. and Texas Forest Services managed the Incident Command Posts and conducted search operations. They are expected to close the camp in Palestine around 4/23/03, followed by Hemphill around 4/25/03, Nacogdoches around 5/2/03, and Corsicana around 5/5/03. The Longview staging area is expected to close around 5/8/03. "We are in the final stages of our ground searches and are beginning to close the camps that housed more than 14,000 people since mid-February," said Mark Stanford, Texas Forest Service Incident Commander. "The camp staffs and communities have been outstanding and treated our search crews as honored guests. Although we're pleased to have ground search operations almost finished, our crews will miss the great East Texas hospitality," he said. "Working with more than 100 federal, state and local agencies, and volunteer groups that came together for one purpose, we will forever be proud of the involvement FEMA had in the Columbia operation," said Federal Coordinating Office Scott Wells. "This operation has been a model of cooperation and has set a high standard for future Department of Homeland Security cooperative endeavors," he said. As the search for debris winds down, NASA plans to maintain a relationship with the officials and people of the East Texas communities affected by the Columbia accident and debris search through community outreach and education programs.

As of this version of the FAQ, debris has been recovered from a debris path spread out over a region spreading from the Dallas-Fort Worth region to as far east as Fort Polk, LA. The recovery effort as of 4/15/03 now encompasses an area consisting of some 169 counties in Texas and 39 in Louisiana, stretched west to east 380 miles (610 km) from Eastland, TX to Alexandria, LA., and north to south 230 miles (435 km) from Sulphur Springs, TX, to metropolitan Houston. Of that total, 143 Texas counties have been searched, 10 counties are in the process of being searched and 26 remain to be searched. Thirty one Louisiana counties have been cleared with eight left to go.

In addition to the reports in Texas and Louisiana, of the 179 reports received from California, 105 have been closed out as not having originated from Columbia. Of 162 reports in Arizona, eight have been closed, and Of 12 reports in New Mexico, four have been closed. Teams continue to investigate reports from 27 states and eight jurisdictions outside of the US. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also stated that 77 percent of sites in Texas and 99 percent of sites in Louisiana where Shuttle debris had been reported have been searched and cleared of debris.

As part of the consolidation of the command centers and the ramping up of the search efforts, four interagency command posts and base camps are being established in Corsicana, Hemphill, Nacogdoches and Palestine, Texas, to direct intensified ground searches. Inter-agency management teams are being deployed to the camps to conduct searches. Up to 3,500 searchers, made up of personnel from a variety of federal and state land management agencies, and fire departments, will operate out of the camps under a management structure typically used in support of wildfires. Teams of approximately 20 trained wilderness firefighters will operate out of the camps, and each team will conduct grid searches.

In addition, air searches will be conducted from Lufkin and Palestine, and the number of helicopters assigned to the recovery efforts will be increased to a total of 35. The helicopters, provided by land management agencies, will provide support for the 3,500 searchers as they concentrate their efforts on a 10-mile-wide corridor five miles on either side of that line stretching through the debris trail left by Columbia's breakup during reentry. Ground searches will concentrate on a four-mile-wide corridor two miles on either side of that line.

To further assist in the air search, NASA flew one of it's ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft over portions of Columbia's flight path on 3/1/03. Based out of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB in California, the ER-2 is based on the same design as the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flown by the USAF. NASA operates a pair of ER-2s for earth and environmental science missions. During the seven-hour flight, the ER-2 was flown at 40,000' over parts of western Texas. Imagery obtained during the flight is being studied to determine if it can show the location of Columbia debris. To help searchers analyze the imagery, various samples of simulated debris were placed on the ER-2's flight path for comparison purposes.

The US Forest Service-led Southern Area Incident Command has set up a base camp in Nacogdoches, TX. The debris search team currently has about 350 people and is expected to grow to 650 people during the next few days as search efforts are ramped up. Two other teams with about 700 members from NASA and more than a dozen other organizations are being deployed to Palestine and Hemphill, TX. The number of searchers is expected to grow to more than 2,000 by the end of the week to assist debris recovery while conditions are more permissible. The Forest Service has stated in press conferences that a "race against time" is in effect as searchers attempt to find as much debris as possible before the blooming season arrives in Texas and foliage obscures and hinders debris being visible.

On 3/4/03. FEMA announced that more than $245,000 has been set aside for reimbursement of local governments in Texas for costs involved in helping recover debris from space shuttle Columbia. A FEMA spokesman said additional amounts will be announced as applications for reimbursement are processed and approved. Under President Bush's emergency declaration following the loss of Columbia, state agencies, local governments and Indian tribes or tribal organizations were made eligible for reimbursement for all eligible emergency measures and debris removal expenses. Among items eligible for reimbursement are search operations, securing of potential debris sites and activation of emergency operations centers.

Some of the top priorities of NASA, and its local, state and federal partners, are to recover or clean up potentially hazardous materials and ensure the public's safety. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has responsibility for the overall disaster response effort. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tasked with collecting and delivering recovered Shuttle material to NASA and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). The US Forest Service and Texas Forest Service are coordinating the land and air search. The US Navy is managing water search activities.

"We still have an obligation to the residents of Texas and Louisiana, as well as any other state that may contain Columbia material, to recover all known material and leave the land as it was prior to Feb. 1. Our obligation also extends to providing all public assistance funds to eligible applicants, and we'll satisfy all those obligations before closing down," said FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Scott Wells.

Since Columbia broke up on 2/1/03 on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, searchers have braved cold weather and periodic bouts of precipitation, both liquid and frozen, to find, map and collect thousands of pieces of debris. In Sabine County alone over 1,000 debris sites have been mapped, and about 900 of them have been cataloged, with over 22,000 pieces of confirmed and suspected debris from the entire search region having been collected as of 3/05/03. The search was grisly at times, with human remains now confirmed as recovered from as many as 22 locations in Nacogdoches County alone.  Note that some of these remains have since been confirmed as having not been from the crew, nor related to the loss of Columbia. These non-related findings have been turned over to the FBI and local law enforcement authorities for further investigation.

The Louisiana National Guard confirmed on 2/3/03 that Camp Beauregard, located near Pineville, is a staging area for debris until it is taken to Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport for audit and initial analysis, then to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for reconstruction and full failure analysis. In addition to Barksdale AFB, debris has also been collected for analysis at the regional command center in Lufkin, Texas, and the Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, Texas.

The first of three truckloads of Columbia debris arrived at Cape Canaveral on 2/11/03. Since then, two flatbed truckloads of debris, each one carrying about 4,000 pounds of wreckage, arrive at KSC for processing. Upon arrival, the debris is taken to a 50,000-square-foot hangar, which has been mapped out in blue and yellow tape grid on the 188'x 166' floor. The debris is then unloaded and unwrapped. If the debris is dirty or possibly contaminated with any of the hazardous chemicals that were used by Columbia, they are carefully washed outside before being brought into the hangar.

Once inside, the scraps of metal, tiles and piles of rubber are inspected by workers, all wearing gloves and protective eyewear to prevent any contact from hazardous materials. The parts are then logged and separated based assumed point of origin from the Shuttle. Where necessary, parts are re-wrapped for protection, or in the case of smaller parts are placed in plastic boxes with transparent lids.

Analysts are also in the process of developing a computerized three-dimensional virtual reconstruction that will show recovered debris modeled on an imaginary orbiter much like aircraft wreckage is sometimes reassembled to aid visualization and to map out the actual locations of various pieces of debris. Such diagrams stored on portable notebook computers are already in use on the assembly floor to assist researchers in correctly determining where debris specifically originated off of Columbia.

As of 4/15/03, the recovered debris statistics stand as follows: 60,200 pieces currently at KSC for evaluation   41,221 pieces identified   3,931 pieces actually laid out on the reassembly room floor. 211 are from the left wing.   70,700 pounds of Shuttle material has been recovered and shipped to KSC, representing 32 percent of the shuttle's total weight   135 "tiles" believed to have originated from the left wing area. Note that not all of these tiles have been specifically identified. Many have a Thin black deposit with a high concentration of aluminum that had never been seen before.   Only one of inboard landing gear tires recovered, blown from inside and melted. Previous reports from the CAIB stated that both tires had been recovered.   25 of 35 tanks internal to fuselage recovered. Note that additional tanks are currently en-route to KSC. If preliminary analysis of debris is correct, the CAIB expects to recover almost all tanks.   Right landing gear door almost completely recovered.   So far, no component identified from left landing gear door. But frame mostly recovered.   Identified at least one leading edge component - RCC #9 - of the 16 to 22 leading edge systems of the left wing, either RCC or structural components of stainless steel.   Also identified was a 24-inch by 4-inch carrier plate that was previously thought to have been the "mystery object" that was detected by radar as having separated from the orbiter on 1/17/03.   The heaviest pieces brought to the hangar, so far, have been the Shuttle’s main engine turbopumps weighing about 600 pounds each.   The Orbital Experiment Support System (OEX) recorder was found intact on 3/19/03, and is currently undergoing data recovery processing at JSC.   Estimated costs for debris recovery have reached ~$235 million to date.

As of 3/28/03, the following is a list of major debris reports, compiled from reports by NASA, the CAIB, and the major news services:

• Florida

  • On 2/4/03, a search crew found a piece of orange-colored foam on the shoreline of a beach in Brevard County, FL. that may be a piece of the External Tank insulation.
    
     

• Utah

  • On 3/21/03, there were initial reports that a piece of an RCC panel had been discovered by a hiker in Zion National Park and shipped to JSC. However, analysis at JSC showed debris, while ceramic in nature, was only a shard of pottery. The hiker is to be commended, as it demonstrates that weeks after the loss of Columbia, people are still on the lookout for Columbia debris.
     

• Nevada

  • On 2/22/03, volunteers looking for a large piece of space shuttle Columbia's landing gear found several small scraps of aluminum in a remote part of Nevada, but it was not immediately clear whether they belonged to Columbia.
     

  • As of 2/21/03, Investigators are searching the area of Caliente, NV, for what could be a piece of Columbia debris believed to have been tracked by air traffic control radar on 2/1/03. Video imagery of Columbia's entry provided to NASA was analyzed by imagery, trajectory and ballistics experts. The results of that analysis were then provided to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials who reviewed the air traffic control radar imagery in that area during the time of Columbia's descent. The review resulted in what is believed to be a significant radar track of a piece of debris as it fell to Earth. As a result, a search of the Caliente area near the Nevada-Utah border is under way using Civil Air Patrol assets. A search using additional means also may be forthcoming.
     

• New Mexico

  • NASA confirmed on 2/15/03 that more than 150 searchers combed a remote New Mexico canyon to look for shuttle debris. NASA pinpointed a 2-square-mile area in Embudito Canyon in the Sandia Mountains, east of Albuquerque, with the help of radar and eyewitness reports. A helicopter from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico was assisting in the search. As of the time of this writing, no debris had been found by the search team.
     

• Texas

  On 3/19/03, the CAIB announced that searchers have located Columbia's Orbital Experiment Support System (OEX) recorder in a field near Hemphill, TX, near the community of Bronson, and had arrived at JSC for cleanup and processing. As of 3/26/03, initial tests on the tape revealed that the tape was "essentially intact", and a copy of the tape had been made that does contain data. The initial tests also revealed the tape continued for ~14 seconds after the final "two second burst" of data before complete loss of signal.

  On 3/1/03, searchers near Corsicana recovered a large section of the outboard corner of Columbia's left wing inboard elevon as well as the 17" disconnect assembly from the Shuttle's belly, NASA announced Friday night.
  The 17" disconnect is believed to be significant in that it may lead searchers to cameras that were mounted nearby for the purpose of documenting the condition of the external tank as it is jettisoned.

  • Dive teams led by the Navy continued their search efforts in Toledo Bend reservoir and Lake Nacogdoches, where on 2/28/03 searchers found what is believed to be the Combustion Module-2 experiment facility that had been aboard the SPACEHAB Research Double Module that was carried in Columbia's cargo bay.
     

  • On 2/28/03, NASA officials confirmed that a damaged videotape was recovered on 2/6/03, containing video recorded on the Columbia flight deck. The damaged tape was found near Palestine on its take-up reel but without the tape case. The surviving tape shows the Astronauts going about their re-entry checklists as normal, with no hints whatsoever of any problems prior to the breakup of the orbiter. Following analysis, the tape was shown to the families of the crew prior to release to the news media. For more information, see Section V, What's on that videotape the search teams found?
     

  • On 2/25/03, the CAIB confirmed that that a Shuttle tile was found about 3 miles north of Littlefield, Texas, which is 35 miles northwest of Lubbock and 40 miles from the New Mexico state line. The tile is confirmed to have originated from an upper section of one of the wings. However, board chairman CAIB chairman Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr. (USN, Ret.) stressed that because of its damaged condition, they may never know which wing the piece came from.
     

  • Despite the high winds that hampered air and water searches during the weekend of 2/21 thru 2/24/03, dive teams were able to recover pieces of tile from Lake Bardwell near Waxahachie, Texas. This follows the addition of an additional Navy dive team, which brought the total number of dive teams involved in the debris search to eight. Other dive teams represented the Houston and Galveston police departments, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Environmental Protection Agency.
     

  NASA officials confirmed on 2/21/03 that a piece of Columbia's tile was found near Lubbock TX, the farthest west of Fort Worth that debris from Columbia has been discovered. The piece of tile was found a week ago by a man plowing his field about 40 miles northwest of Lubbock.

  • NASA announced on 2/19/03 that Columbia’s nose landing gear has been found largely intact in the woods near the Texas side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir. The 8-foot piece of debris was found lying in the dirt, the wheels reportedly still on their hubs.
     

  • In what is only the third confirmed report of shuttle debris theft, Harrison County Pct. 3 Constable Robert Hagan was arrested by federal officials on 2/17/03, accused of stealing debris from the Columbia shuttle disaster, and of lying to officials about the theft. Hagan, an elected official, is accused of hiding the debris in his patrol vehicle and boasting about it to another law enforcement officer when he returned to Harrison County from Nacogdoches. When arrested, Hagan was found in possession of six pieces of debris, which he claimed he was Authorized to possess as part of the search. According to NASA and the FBI, no one, including Hagan, was ever authorized to take any piece of debris from its impact site for any reason.
     

  • In Lufkin, Two Texans were indicted on 2/12/03 on federal charges they stole pieces of space shuttle Columbia. This prompted Federal officials in Texas to declare an amnesty period extending until 5:00pm 2/7/03, during which people who have collected shuttle debris can turn it in without fear of being prosecuted.
     

  An update: the indictments for the alleged debris thieves from Lufkin can now be viewed online courtesy The Smoking Gun. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/shuttleloot1.html

  • In what may be related to the report on 2/7/03 regarding the Air Force imaging of a "crack" in the left wing, a "significant" section of Reinforced Carbon-Carbon material from one of the wing leading edges has been confirmed as found near Lufkin, Texas, contradicting earlier reports that searchers found the fragment farther west, around Fort Worth. The debris is reportedly a 26-by-18-inch (66-by-48-centimeter) chunk of the left wing, although at the time of this writing it had not been announced where along the wing this particular debris originated from.
     

  • In addition to the left wing debris, searchers also found one of the 300 avionics boxes. These boxes monitor and control most of the systems on the Shuttle. According to NASA officials, the box was originally reported to have been one of the Shuttle’s general-purpose computers during the 2/10/03 press conference, but the report was later retracted. The box has officially been identified as a KU band antenna communication unit.
     

  NASA has also confirmed the finding of a roughly two-foot square section of an external tank umbilical door, as well as a hydrazine propellant tank "in fairly good shape." The actual location of these parts was not disclosed at the time of the announcement, but is believed to be at or near the same area where the KU band antenna communications unit was retrieved.

  In Hemphill, searchers found what are believed to be human remains, and what appeared to be gauges and other Columbia components in a farmer's field on 2/10/03. Although no details were given on the human remains, over 100 pieces of debris ranging from gauges to switches and other components, many of which still had the wires attached to them.

  • In Nacogdoches on 2/9/03, three large pieces of the shuttle were found by searchers. One of the three turned out to be one of the strongest pieces of the Shuttle, a 10-foot-long hinge-point of a cargo bay. According to NASA officials, the hinge was so badly twisted and deformed that investigators said it "looked as if it had been in an explosion."
     

  • Investigators are also studying a 300-pound object that appears to be a door panel from one of the shuttle’s wheel wells found in an unspecified location in East Texas. At the time of this writing, while the panel was confirmed to have been a hatch cover, it was not clear from which wheel well it was originally attached to.
     

  • In Bronson debris crews combed an area along the Texas-Louisiana border for the wreckage of a secret communications device that allowed the encryption of communications between NASA and Columbia. Officials on the scene have reported that a search party found "one black box with a serial number about five miles east of Bronson, but it didn't appear to be the black box NASA was looking for."
     

  • Following the finding of a rectangular object less than one-foot wide and about two-and-a-half inches thick, with burn marks on some of its edges, the city of Tyler instructed all of its departments 02/02/03 to check for debris. The search area included areas in and around city buildings, parking lots, service centers, treatment plants, parks and garden areas, cemeteries, ball fields and any other city-owned properties.
     

  A large piece of the space shuttle Columbia's nose cone was found 2/3/03 in a heavily wooded area in Sabine County, Texas, a few miles from Hemphill, a town of about 1,200 people and 130 miles (210 km) northeast of Houston and Johnson Space Center.
  The cone was partially buried in a hole described by state troopers as 20 feet (6 m) wide. Embedded in a tree near the nose cone was what appeared to be a black tile.

  • NASA officials confirmed that one tile fragment was found near Fort Worth, TX. At the time of this writing, this is the westward-most confirmed debris from Columbia found so far.
     

  A 6 to 7-foot (1.8 to 2.1 m) long section of the crew cabin in an unspecified location in Nacogdoches County, as reported by local law enforcement officials. The same report also noted that additional crew remains may have also been found nearby.

  • Remains that a hospital employee identified as charred torso, thigh bone and skull on a rural road near other unspecified debris in Hemphill, east of Nacogdoches.
     

  • Remains identified as a charred human leg on a farm in Sabine County, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Nacogdoches.
     

  Intact, charred helmet and astronaut's patch in San Augustine County.

  • A rounded piece of what appeared to be metal, about 4 feet by 5 feet (1.2 m x 1.5 m), found on a rural highway in Neches.
     

  • Foot-long (0.3 m) metal bracket that smashed through roof of dentist's office in Nacogdoches.
     

  • Half-moon-shaped metal piece, about 5 feet (1.5 m) long, in front yard in Nacogdoches, described as jagged with severe burn marks.
     

  V-shaped chunk of metal in the median of U.S. 79 just northeast of Palestine, in Anderson County. More unspecified debris found at nearby Pert.

  2-foot (0.6 m) square pieces of metal, small pieces of tile in Cherokee County, just west of Nacogdoches, and in Rusk County, just to the north.   A 5 to 6-foot (1.5 to 1.8 m) long object that looks like part of the landing gear found 12 miles (19 km) south of San Augustine, with a piece that looks like part of a radio, with wires hanging out, found half a mile away. 300 pieces, including one that would be difficult to fit into a pickup truck, found in Cherokee County.   25 pieces found on a 20-acre (0.1 km^2) campus of the Douglas Independent School District in Nacogdoches.

  Possible 5- by 5-inch (13cm x 13cm) piece of tile in front of Rice High School in Rice, in Navarro County.

  Tank, about 3 feet (1 m) in diameter, on a runway at the A.L. Mangham Jr. Regional Airport in Nacogdoches.

  • 3- by 3-foot (1m x 1m) piece of metal in a bank parking lot in Nacogdoches, and 1-foot (0.3 m) diameter piece of gray metal in front of the courthouse.
     

  Curved piece of metal, about 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter, in highway median in Anderson County, west of Nacogdoches.

  • 7- to 8-foot (2.1 to 2.3 m) door-like fragment and a piece of debris resembling part of a windshield found in Cherokee County.
     

  Dented metal object about the size of a beach ball in the front yard of a home in Bronson, southeast of Nacogdoches near the Louisiana line. The object has bolts and nodules attached.

  3-foot-by-3-foot (1m by 1m) cylindrical object at National Guard Armory in Nacogdoches.

   

• Louisiana

  • On  3/31/03, searchers working near Fort Polk in central Louisiana recovered three engine parts from two craters. Recovered two of Columbia's engine powerheads, which are pathways for fuel in a shuttle engine. All three of the shuttle's powerheads were found on Fort Polk. Also found was one turbopump, which is an engine part where fuel is pressurized. The site of the debris was among the farthest east any Columbia fragments have been found so far. According to NASA sources, the engine parts traveled farther east because they were among the densest, heaviest parts of the aircraft.
    
    A total of six craters have been found on the Army post, including a large engine mounting bracket and other turbo pumps and power heads. According to a US Forest Service ranger, one of the craters was 6-feet wide, while one of the parts was found ~6-feet deep inside the hole on a small arms training range at the Army post.
    
    This find was significant for an additional reason, as it marked the end of NASA's search for shuttle debris in this particular area. No further orchestrated searches are planned for the Fort Polk region, as the amount of debris recovered per day has reduced to almost nil in the latter weeks of the search.
     

  Divers and officials with the Navy, EPA, and the Galveston and Houston police departments continued searching the 75-mile-long (120-kilometer-long) Toledo Bend Reservoir on Texas-Louisiana state line for pieces of the Shuttle. Witnesses fishing on the Reservoir on 2/1/03 reported hearing "six to 10 splashes in three or four minutes." The underwater search is using side-scanning sonar and dive teams from the Navy and other organizations. The search in the Toledo Bend area has been frustrated by bad weather and water so murky from runoff that the visibility is only 20 inches. Diving is expected to continue through April 2003.

In addition to the poor visibility, the very nature of the reservoir is playing havoc with search equipment. The creation of Toledo Bend Lake and reservoir system involved the flooding of a rather large area of dense pine forests, and no attempt was made to clear the area of timber beforehand. In addition, man-made objects like railroad tracks, mail boxes, cow sheds and even abandoned houses were left to be submerged under the water's surface when the reservoir was created. While this design was suitable for producing a prime fishing site, the bottom of this rather shallow lake is a dense tangle of fallen trees with extremely low visibility even without silt and runoff following rains in the area and upstream.

The reservoir was closed shortly after debris recovery efforts started amidst fears of possible contamination from hypergolic fuels that may have entered the waters via Shuttle debris. Tests showed that the surface water is not contaminated, and Toledo Bend officials reopened the town water system's intakes for water from the reservoir on 2/28/03.

• On 3/11/03, workers recovered a 4x4' chunk of debris from Fort Polk, Louisiana. NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries says the debris was part of the shuttle's engine head, and that the piece fell near the 14th hole of the Army post's golf course, creating a hole about six feet deep.
   
• Meanwhile, an EPA search team retrieved a piece of cylindrical hunk metal found in the Toledo Bend Reservoir. The 40-pound piece of debris was about 2½ feet in diameter and a foot thick. So far, this is the only confirmed shuttle part found so far in the  reservoir. Louisiana state police confirmed more than two dozen chunks of debris in 12 different parishes. Authorities recovered a 3-by-4-foot (1m x 1.1m) metal panel with small holes from a thicket in Sabine Parish, on the Texas border. Specific parishes listed by Louisiana authorities include Rapides, Vernon, Natchitoches, Sabine, Beauregard, Ascension, Bossier, Caddo, Calcasieu, Jefferson, LaFourche and Webster parishes.
   
• In Vernon Parish, pieces of paper, burnt and frayed on the sides with the name of Columbia Pilot William McCool on one side and the number of the space shuttle Columbia flight on the other. Another sheet reportedly was nearly black with broken sentences with words such as "STS-58," "spacecraft" and "United States." Most of the papers were found near homes in the Vernon Lake area and on U.S. Highway 171 between Leesville and Anacoco.
   
• Fort Polk confirmed 02/02/03 there were three possible pieces of the shuttle located on its grounds. The pieces were found in the Zion Hills Training area in separate locations 1.5 to 3 miles (2.5-5 km) east of the South Fort Polk cantonment area, Fort Polk officials said.
   
• An apparent gearbox from the shuttle was found lodged into the ground near the highway about 1 p.m. Sunday near the Louisiana State Highway 392 in the Sandy Creek Community near Anacoco. About 500 yards (~ 450 m) west from the lodged gearbox, another piece of debris was found in the woods along Old River Road. This piece was picked up and taken away by a resident, but it was later brought back and placed beside the other piece.
   
• In Natchitoches Parish, deputies had located one piece of possible shuttle insulation in the area between Robeline and Flora, and a small piece of debris found on Pine Ridge Drive in Pineville was described as heavy with a greenish tint.
   
• Parish deputies are also reporting quite a number of reports of debris that turned out to be false alarms. In Natchitoches, sheriff's deputies said they had reports of bones, which turned out to belong to animals, as well as burnt rocks.
   
• A piece of suspected shuttle debris found Saturday on La. Highway 28 West turned out to be a piece of aluminum not a part of the shuttle.
   
• Possible human remains were found in Caddo Parish, but State Police said it is unconfirmed if the remains belonged to any of the seven astronauts. Sources within Caddo Parish are also saying the remains "may only be a burned animal carcass some prankster set fire to as a sick joke".
   
• In another false alarm, the debris turned out to be a truck mud flap. The giveaway was when the debris was turned over, Yosemite Sam was found brandishing two pistols and telling drivers to "back off".
   
• Smoldering bundle of wires in a front yard in Shreveport.
   

• California, Arizona & New Mexico

  • Initial reports of tiles and wing material have been reported in California, Arizona & New Mexico by NASA during the 2/4/03 press conference. These are being investigated and have not been confirmed at this time as being Columbia debris. In fact, very little has been said about these possible finds since their initial reports.
     

  • A NASA team arrived in California on 2/5/03 to collect what may be a piece of debris from Columbia. If the item - a 4-inch silver-colored piece with a square hole burned in its center - is authenticated, it would be the first piece of the shuttle found west of the main debris field in East Texas.

Please keep in mind that *only* certain debris reports from Hemphill and Nacogdoches have been 100% confirmed at this time as being from Columbia. All other reports are unconfirmed and should be treated as such until officially verified.