Space Shuttle Columbia Recovery Effort
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On February 1, 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia and her seven crewmen were lost while reentering the atmosphere. Material from the Shuttle were scattered over a large area of the western United States and became the subject of an intensive recovery effort spearheaded by NASA.
PROMARE was contracted by Lockheed Martin, Inc. in support of the Environmental Protection Agency's Emergency Response Team (EPA/ERT), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the field. Personnell from PROMARE served as EPA/FEMA Sonar Data Analysts for the recovery effort, focused on the lakes and rivers of eastern Texas.
Phoenix International and the US Navy Supervisor of Salvage eventually assumed responsibility for the underwater recovery efforts and PROMARE was asked to remain on-site to continue analyzing data with the SUPSALV/Phoenix team. It was an honor to have been called to support the EPA, FEMA, Phoenix, SUPSALV, and NASA at this trying time. Our thoughts are with the families of those who died serving not only their country, but all mankind's dreams.