Remains shuttle crew’s

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 8

Remains shuttle crew’s

NZPA-AP Cape Canaveral Human remains found along the Florida coast had been Identified as those of the seven astronauts killed in last week’s space shuttle explosion, a broadcast network reported yesterday. The network, N.8.C.,. said the remains had been brought to shore in recent days. Asked about the report, a space agency spokesman, Richard Young, said, “We don’t have any word from the investigation board about that.” The C.B.S. network reported that “at least a portion” of the shuttle Challenger’s main crew compartment had been located and that some of the personal effects of the astronauts had floated to the ocean surface. Searchers apparently, located one of Challen-’ ger’s two rocket boosters yesterday and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said

that that could prove to be “a very valuable piece of evidence” in the investigation of the shuttle’s explosion. “Sonar soundings indicate a solid rocket booster may have been located,” N.A.S.A. said. There was no information on the precise location.

There also was no indication whether it was Challenger’s right booster — the chief suspect in the explosion that destroyed the shuttle and killed its seven astronauts. Challenger had two such boosters to help propel it into space. “It would be a miracle if we could find the right hand segment we saw in the pictures and everybody has a hypothesis about,” said Jim Mizell, a space agency spokesman. “There are many things you could tell engineer-ing-wise if you recovered that data.” If the booster is from

the right side “we have a very valuable piece of evidence for the (accident) review board,” Mr Mizell said. When the shuttle blew up the two boosters separated and began flying crazily in the sky. When one of them appeared to be headed toward the Florida coast a range safety officer sent a radio signal that detonated an explosive charge and blew the top off both boosters. That had the effect of shooting flame out both ends, stopping the forward motion and tumbling the rocket into the sea. Under such circumstances the casing could have survived almost intact. N.A.S.A. was expected to summon a salvage ship with heavy-lift capacity, if the sonar indications were correct. The booster’s recovery might show whether a leak in the thick metal casing caused a flame to heat the huge external

tank, setting off the blast. Engineers could gain much knowledge just studying the burn patterns or the joints on the side of the thick rocket casing, Mr Mizell said. Earlier, N.A.S.A. severely cut back a search of the surface, which has yielded only one-tenth of Challenger’s wreckage and shifted emphasis to the search of the ocean bottom. Other chief objects of the search are the crew compartment, with its cockpit voice recorder and electronics that monitor and record spacecraft systems. • The booster rockets were not designed for use in weather as cold as on launching day, a spokesman for the rocket’s maker said yesterday. But Gilbert Moore, of Morton Thiokol, Inc., said the freezing weather had nothing do do with the explosion.