| The Aftermath |
| The remains of the some of the astronauts who perished in the disaster were found by recovery teams, Nasa said. The agency said that body parts from all seven astronauts had been recovered. However, they later retracted the statement. "We are treating those remains with the ultimate respect and care that they deserve," Bob Cabana, director of flight crew operations, said. "We're honouring our fellow crew mates, and we're taking care of them." Meanwhile, the search continued for debris from the shuttle. Hundreds of law enforcement officials and soldiers, some on horseback and in helicopters, fanned out across an area dubbed the "debris belt". The main search area was about 100 miles to 120 miles long and about 10 miles wide, stretching from Palestine, Texas, to the small east Texas town of Hemphill near the Louisiana border. Debris was found at nearly 2,000 sites, including some 1,200 places in Nacogdoches County. Officials said one of their top priorities was to remove debris from about 100 schools in the five Texas counties where the bulk of the shuttle's pieces came down. The public were warned not to touch the remains. Local police and volunteers guarded the debris. Pieces of Columbia found in Nacogdoches County ranged in size from a postage stamp to the bed of a pickup truck. Some were large chunks of twisted metal, tile-like fragments and items such as an almost-intact spherical tank found at the city's airport that may have been part of the fuel system. A massive search got underway at Toledo Bend reservoir, where local fishermen reported seeing a large, metallic piece of the shuttle, about the size of a compact car, fall into the water. Recovered items were photographed, secured and marked by global positioning satellites. |
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