Summary

Description	With an eye on the future of American spaceflight, NASA is releasing the first pieces of Space Shuttle Columbia debris to the aerospace industry for research. NASA believes permitting access to the debris will allow manufacturers to design and build safer, more efficient and reliable components for future spacecraft. 'As part of the reconstruction and the investigation, the folks who were supporting the investigation came in and were taking a lot of notes and responding: 'Hey, there's a lot neat science that can be taken from Columbia not related to the accident.' ' In response to the enthusiasm shown by the investigators, NASA asked that companies interested in viewing Columbia contact the Agency. An impressive 20 companies announced interest in studying the Shuttle. The first company outside of the Agency to receive portions of Columbia is The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California. The company will spend the next year studying eight storage tanks associated with Columbia's
Date	2004-06-15
Source	images.nasa.gov

Licensing

Public Domain (US Government Work)