Remains of some of the seven astronauts in the crew of the space shuttle Columbia have been recovered in rural East Texas, NASA said yesterday.
While forensics experts said the fragmentary remains could be genetically identified despite the craft's disintegration 39 miles overhead, details about exactly how the seven astronauts died and how quickly could be elusive.
Bob Cabana, NASA's director of flight crew operations, said initially that the remains of all seven astronauts had been found. However, Cabana later released a statement saying he had been misinformed and that NASA could not confirm that remains from all seven had been recovered. He said NASA was still in the process of identifications and "working closely with representatives of the Israeli government to ensure that everything is done properly."
Astronaut Ilan Ramon was an Israeli fighter pilot. His country's ambassador to the United States was in Houston conferring with NASA officials. Under Jewish law, mourners normally must bury their dead within 24 hours, then immediately begin observing a mourning ritual.
The remains may be analyzed at the center that identified the remains of the Challenger astronauts and the Pentagon victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Officials initially said identification would be done at Dover, the only such military facility in the continental United States, but a base spokeswoman said yesterday that "things are a little more tentative now."
Among the remains recovered are a torso, thigh bone, skull and a charred leg.
"DNA analysis certainly can do it if there are any cells left," said Carrie Whitcomb, director of the National Center for Forensic Science in Orlando, Fla. "If there is enough tissue to pick up, then there are lots of cells."
"Identification can be made with hair and bone, too," said University of Texas physicist Manfred Fink. "Unless the body was very badly burned ... it should not hinder the work."
Simpler identification methods, such as fingerprints, can also be used. Dental records and X-rays from astronauts' medical files can provide matching information, making the discovery of the skull and the leg particularly valuable, they said. But experts were less certain whether laboratory methods could compensate for remains contaminated by the toxic fuel and chemicals used throughout the shuttle.
Despite the hundreds of debris sightings swamping law enforcement officials in Texas, recognizable portions of the crew capsule had not been found.
"If the bodies had been removed from the safeguard of the cabin, they would have totally burned up and very little could be recovered," Fink said. If the bodies were shielded by portions of the cabin until impact with the ground, he said, identification would be easier.
Disasters such as the World Trade Center attack pushed the science of identification technologies to use new methods, chemicals and analytical software to identify remains that had been burned or pulverized. Researchers said they can work not only with much smaller biological samples, but smaller fragments of the genetic code that every human cell contains.
In the Challenger explosion in 1986, a fuel tank explosion ripped apart the spacecraft 73 seconds after liftoff. Questions about the demise of the Challenger crew persisted during the probe that followed.
Challenger's nose section, with the crew cabin inside, was blown free and fell 8.7 miles. NASA learned from flight deck recordings and the apparent use of emergency oxygen packs that some of the astronauts were alive during Challenger's plunge. The capsule shattered after hitting the ocean.
Two years later, NASA officials said forensic analysis did not reveal conclusive evidence about either the cause or time of the astronauts' deaths.
On Saturday, Columbia's crew had no chance of survival after the shuttle broke up 207,135 feet above the Earth. The spacecraft was exposed to re-entry temperatures of 3,000 degrees while traveling 12,500 mph.
While forensics experts said the fragmentary remains could be genetically identified despite the craft's disintegration 39 miles overhead, details about exactly how the seven astronauts died and how quickly could be elusive.
Bob Cabana, NASA's director of flight crew operations, said initially that the remains of all seven astronauts had been found. However, Cabana later released a statement saying he had been misinformed and that NASA could not confirm that remains from all seven had been recovered. He said NASA was still in the process of identifications and "working closely with representatives of the Israeli government to ensure that everything is done properly."
Astronaut Ilan Ramon was an Israeli fighter pilot. His country's ambassador to the United States was in Houston conferring with NASA officials. Under Jewish law, mourners normally must bury their dead within 24 hours, then immediately begin observing a mourning ritual.
The remains may be analyzed at the center that identified the remains of the Challenger astronauts and the Pentagon victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Officials initially said identification would be done at Dover, the only such military facility in the continental United States, but a base spokeswoman said yesterday that "things are a little more tentative now."
Among the remains recovered are a torso, thigh bone, skull and a charred leg.
"DNA analysis certainly can do it if there are any cells left," said Carrie Whitcomb, director of the National Center for Forensic Science in Orlando, Fla. "If there is enough tissue to pick up, then there are lots of cells."
"Identification can be made with hair and bone, too," said University of Texas physicist Manfred Fink. "Unless the body was very badly burned ... it should not hinder the work."
Simpler identification methods, such as fingerprints, can also be used. Dental records and X-rays from astronauts' medical files can provide matching information, making the discovery of the skull and the leg particularly valuable, they said. But experts were less certain whether laboratory methods could compensate for remains contaminated by the toxic fuel and chemicals used throughout the shuttle.
Despite the hundreds of debris sightings swamping law enforcement officials in Texas, recognizable portions of the crew capsule had not been found.
"If the bodies had been removed from the safeguard of the cabin, they would have totally burned up and very little could be recovered," Fink said. If the bodies were shielded by portions of the cabin until impact with the ground, he said, identification would be easier.
Disasters such as the World Trade Center attack pushed the science of identification technologies to use new methods, chemicals and analytical software to identify remains that had been burned or pulverized. Researchers said they can work not only with much smaller biological samples, but smaller fragments of the genetic code that every human cell contains.
In the Challenger explosion in 1986, a fuel tank explosion ripped apart the spacecraft 73 seconds after liftoff. Questions about the demise of the Challenger crew persisted during the probe that followed.
Challenger's nose section, with the crew cabin inside, was blown free and fell 8.7 miles. NASA learned from flight deck recordings and the apparent use of emergency oxygen packs that some of the astronauts were alive during Challenger's plunge. The capsule shattered after hitting the ocean.
Two years later, NASA officials said forensic analysis did not reveal conclusive evidence about either the cause or time of the astronauts' deaths.
On Saturday, Columbia's crew had no chance of survival after the shuttle broke up 207,135 feet above the Earth. The spacecraft was exposed to re-entry temperatures of 3,000 degrees while traveling 12,500 mph.