News New debris of Space Shuttle Columbia found in Nacogdoches, TX

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A piece of debris from NASA's space shuttle Columbia has been discovered in Texas, eight years after the 2003 disaster that destroyed the spacecraft and killed its seven-astronaut crew during re-entry, NASA officials confirmed today (Aug. 2).

Nacogdoches police on Monday announced recovery of the item, described as about 4 feet in diameter and "full of mud." Police say the piece was found in an isolated part of Lake Nacogdoches.

Authorities in the east Texas city of Nacogdoches say the object was found after the drought caused the waters to recede in Lake Nacogdoches, and they notified representatives from NASA on Friday.

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Click on image to enlarge​

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The piece was one of 16 tanks on the shuttle that stored supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The spherical tank, about 40 inches (1 meter) in diameter, will eventually be shipped back to Kennedy Space Center, where NASA stores all the collected debris from Columbia in a climate controlled area in the giant Vehicle Assembly Building.

To date, about 38-40 percent of the Columbia orbiter's wreckage has been recovered. The remainder was either burned up during reentry or is still where it landed in Texas and Louisiana.



Links:

• SPACE.com: Debris From Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster Found in Texas
  
  
• collectSPACE: Drought exposes debris from space shuttle Columbia in Texas
  
  
• Florida Today: Drought reveals possible part of shuttle Columbia in Texas lake
  
  
• Florida Today - The Flame Trench: Columbia Debris Turns Up In East Texas
  
  
• redOrbit: Texas Lake Reveals Possible Debris From Shuttle Columbia
  
  
• Daily Mail: Piece of shuttle Columbia found in a dried out Texas lake eight years after tragic crash
  
  
• CNN: Space shuttle Columbia part found in east Texas
  
  
• USA Today: NASA says item found in East Texas lake is from the Columbia shuttle
  
  
• Reuters: Texas drought exposes possible Space Shuttle Columbia piece
  
  
• Dallas News: Drought reveals space shuttle Columbia debris in Lake Nacogdoches

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks like a Helium tank. About 4 feet are about 48 inches right? The large Helium tanks of the MPS have 40.3" diameter.

 

[Kyle]

Its been confirmed as a PRSD tank from the mission.

 

[N_Molson]

Looks like it blew from the inside...

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks like it blew from the inside...

Yes, but that isn't what makes me wonder about it actually being a MPS tank, instead of the PRSD "fact". The Hydrogen tanks of the PRSD in that size are double-walled, this one doesn't look double-walled. It rather looks like a single-wall tank. It is pretty encrusted in sediments. It also doesn't look like just the inner wall of such a tank - there are absolutely no traces of an outer wall at the three visible connections. I don't think this is a PRSD tank, even if NASA claims so.

This is how a PRSD tank looks like intact and installed in the Shuttle:

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011...very-exemplifying-routine-orbiter-excellence/

As comparison, a 40" tank of the MPS during a burst test, with its kevlar liner installed:

You can see some of the connections in this photo sticking out of the kevlar liner. Kevlar would melt already at pretty low temperatures, exposing the titan walls that would likely survive reentry.

 

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And here's an article about found tank from NASA.