News-Info-Alerts

Re: Astronaut ID Process... Days, Weeks, Months

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 05, 2003

"Military Mortuary to Begin Work on Astronauts' Remains
By Randall Chase Associated Press Writer

DOVER, Del. (AP) - Flag-draped cases containing the remains of at least some of space shuttle Columbia's astronauts arrived Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base, where experts will work to identify them.

A C-141 military cargo plane carrying the remains from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana touched down just before 2:40 p.m. at Dover, home of the military's largest mortuary.

Aboard the plane were seven coffin-like cases, symbolizing Columbia's seven crew members. Six cases were draped with American flags, the seventh with the flag of Israel in honor of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.

Remains "will be released to their families as soon as possible," NASA Deputy Administrator Frederick Gregory said at a news conference.

After the plane taxied to a stop, Gregory and base commander Col. Scott E. Wuesthoff, accompanied by a chaplain and two honor guards, joined two rabbis who accompanied the flight from Louisiana.

The chaplain, Lt. Col. Karen Stocks, said a prayer before the remains were transferred to four white hearses and taken to the mortuary. On the tarmac, a color guard stood at attention as a stiff wind whipped the American and Israeli flags.

"We're basically a stop on the way home to the loved ones for these national heroes that perished," Wuesthoff said.

Workers at the mortuary will use DNA analysis and other techniques to identify the remains.

"It could be days, it could be weeks, it could be months," mortuary director William Zwicharowski said.

He would not comment on the number of remains.

NASA and base officials rebutted reports that some remains, including Ramon's, already had been identified.

"Since the remains have not gone through the identification, the forensic analysis, there's no way to determine at this point whose remains we have," said base spokeswoman Lt. Olivia Nelson.

In Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported four sets of remains had been identified, including those of Ramon, an Israeli fighter pilot. Israel's chief army rabbi, Israel Weiss, said that "we received a clear, positive, scientific answer that leaves no room for doubt" about identification of Ramon's body.

The Dover mortuary also handled the bodies of the seven astronauts killed in the 1986 Challenger explosion and victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. "