Columbia Aircraft Debris Found

Space shuttle Columbia debris that crashed while returning to Earth in 2003 was found last week in eastern Texas, United States. Debris in the form of a container made of aluminum and power reactant distribution tank was sitting exactly in the region of Lake Nacogdoches.

Police who found the debris it sends images at NASA. Staff NASA finally confirms the truth. "One of the staff had identified debris piled more than 30 years, recognize the debris and said, really it was one of the distribution tank," Oral said Malone, a spokesman for NASA.

The discovery of debris was allegedly caused by drought that hit parts of the lake. "The only reason that the debris found was due to drought that occurred, before the tank is located under the lake. The tank itself was full of mud when found," Malone added, as quoted by FoxNews, Monday (08/02/2011).

Tank that was found was one of 16 tanks on the space shuttle Columbia that hold super-cold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Spherical tank with a diameter of 1 meter would then be sent to the Kennedy Space Center, where NASA stores all fragments Columbia.

Malone said the discovery of the Columbia debris is able to open old wounds, the memory of the incident plane crash. In the accident, seven teams of astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson and Ilan Ramon were killed.

Until now, 38-40% of the Columbia debris has been found. Meanwhile, other debris entering Earth supposedly burned or dumped in the area of ​​Texas or Louisiana. "From time to time, we got calls and emails from people who suspect that the debris they found was part of Columbia," said Malone.

Columbia accident is the second accident in the history of NASA's space shuttle flight. Earlier, in 1986, the Challenger also suffered a similar fate unlucky. The history of NASA's space shuttle flight itself has now ended with the last landing of Atlantis on July 21, 2011 last.