ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: Accomplish that we wanted to. Members of the Board will be returning, some as early as next week, to pursue individual areas of investigation. I'll give you -- I'll give you an impression and then I'll answer any questions.

All the members of the Board were very impressed with the energy and the commitment of both NASA employees and contractor employees. Both their commitment and their seriousness to their work and also their commitment to helping us solve the mystery of what happened to the Columbia, it's very impressive work force and to a person we were all impressed by everybody we met and everything we saw.

We did learn a lot of things, took a lot of notes. We learned a lot of things that we would like to come back and follow up on, and that's what -- that's what we'll do. We're now going to Huntsville to Marshall Space Center where we're going to learn and probably come across some other things that we'd like to follow up on, and then we'll end up at the ET Production Facility at Michaud, and we'll be back in Houston on Saturday night.

Once again, as I always say, I will not comment on particular theories or hypotheses or pieces of evidence except in generic terms. As you are aware, yesterday the Board released some information about the heat -- about the heat evidence, and we will continue to do that as we -- as we develop work and as we develop information, we'll release it, but we just -- we won't speculate about what it means or how important it is. We'll keep the process open and we'll keep telling you what we're doing, but we will not get into a guessing game at this time.

So with that, I'd be pleased to answer any questions.

NEWS MEDIA: Admiral, Seth Bornstein, Knight Ridder Newspapers. Does the Board's announce -- release yesterday mean that you will not be conducting your own staff's analysis of the thermal breach and potential foam tile impact since it's a NASA analysis you talked about?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: No, it doesn't mean anything like that at all. We will -- we will conduct an independent analysis of anything that we -- that our board of experts -- you know, we have an independent board of technical experts. Anything that our board of experts thinks that's germane to our conclusions -- in other words, our report has to be based on that -- and requires independent verification, we will then go out and independently verify it. We will not arbitrarily independently verify everything that NASA does.

As a matter of fact, I would expect that of the hundreds and hundreds of technical analyses that are going on right now by NASA, a small percentage would be -- would be independently verified, but our -- when we finally write our report and we come to our conclusions and recommendations, they will be based upon independent verification.

NEWS MEDIA: Admiral, Thomas Baldrick with ABC News. Where do things stand right now in the decision to add board members to make up for possible voids in expertise or to make the Board more independent?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: We -- the subject of additional board members is still alive and well. I have -- I am talking to various experts, and it would be premature for me right now to mention any names, but I will tell you that the way you couched the question is the right -- is the right process. We are -- a couple of categories of people that we are looking for and they would be things like aerodynamists or high altitude aerodynamists and high-speed thermal engineers and things like that, so --

NEWS MEDIA: So you have concluded that there are voids in the Board?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: We -- we are -- we have -- we knew from day one and we are consistent that the Board will expand not only because of expertise we'd like to add to the Board, but also we are becoming aware of the size of the job, the amount of work that needs to be done. I've said that since day one and that has been consistent.

As you are aware, we've added one person to the Board, a person who's very familiar with very technical civilian military -- civilian government contracting. NASA being largely a contracted organization, we have to know precisely how that works, where the lines of authority and responsibility are, who's responsible for what, and what are the procedures by which you enforce that.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Chris Kridler from Florida Today. Can you talk about follow-up on -- you said you wanted to follow up on some areas that you learned about while you were here. Can you elaborate on your strategies for investigating areas based at Kennedy Space Center? And also, did you talk to Ron Dittemore while he was here?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: Yeah. The second -- I'll answer the second one first. We did not talk to Ron while we were here. We did talk or have spoken to Ron many times back at Houston.

Yes, as you may be aware, the Board has divided itself into three subboards and each of the subboards found things -- well, they learned, we didn't discover new things, I mean, the Kennedy people knew them, but we learned new things that were of interest to each of the subboards, and they're busy taking notes and they're going to come back and follow up on them. Some of the follow-up can be done in Houston, but much of the follow-up will be done here, and we will be back not as a big Board like this, but they'll be back in smaller groups. And the next time they come, we will come with some of our technical experts; in other words, there will be fewer board members and more technicians.

NEWS MEDIA: Admiral, Phil Long with Miami Herald. America's gone on high alert again on terrorism and it raises the question, is sabotage part of anything that your investigative team will be working on or is it a non-issue? Or where does it fit in? How do you handle it?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: Sabotage or any purposeful -- I hate to use the word "sabotage" because it has legal meanings, but any purposeful hindrance or damage is included in our investigation just like everything else is. Everything is on the table and my intent is, because of my Cole background, are particularly keen to any -- any purposeful act.

NEWS MEDIA: Admiral, Renee Stutsman with the Orlando Sentinel. What clues about the cause and manner of death the astronauts suffered have their remains yielded?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: The subject of the human remains and the astronauts' remains will be protected extraordinarily carefully because of the privacy -- that we'd like to respect their privacy. We are learning from the evidence as provided by the human remains, but I am not going to say anything about either personal effects or human remains except to say that they are being scrutinized very carefully and segregated from the rest of the debris.

NEWS MEDIA: Mike Schneider, Associated Press. Two follow-up questions to previous questions. First of all, how many board members do you expect to add?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: Think in terms of one or two more.

NEWS MEDIA: And also, which technical experts do you expect board members to meet with here at KSC next week?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: You'll have -- I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.

NEWS MEDIA: Which technical experts do you expect board members to meet with next week at KSC?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: Across the whole range. I mean, the whole range. We -- some of them are interested in shuttle reprocessing, some of them are interested in launch preparations, some of them are interested in material handling and testing, some are interested in Mission Control and their processes, some are interested in safety, some are interested in vendor -- vendor certifications. I mean, it goes the whole way. We learned about these things, we learned how the process worked, and we made -- we made notes that we want to follow up in.

We also -- by the way, while we're here, we also received a brief and actually did some decision making in that we are -- we have to approve the processes for debris collection and debris processing, and we made sure that what they're doing here satisfies the investigatory requirements of the Board. It does. They're doing a great job, and we ratified what they're doing. In the case of debris, there are some specific tests that some of the board members want to be sure are done and we'll be back to make sure those tests are done.

NEWS MEDIA: Dan Billow with WESH TV. Admiral, you took a good close look at the wing or wings of an orbiter. What were you looking for and what did you -- specifically what did you learn about an orbiter wing that particularly interested you?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: We -- you're right, we were particularly interested in the area where the heating was reported, and it turns out that we went over all three orbiters, you may be aware. We inspected all three orbiters, because all three orbiters are in different stages of configuration. It was very fortuitous to come to Kennedy at this particular time, because there's an orbiter which is stacked and ready to launch, there's an orbiter which is in normal refurbishment, and then there's an orbiter which is in overhaul or in-depth maintenance.

Yes, we wanted to -- we wanted to see every rivet and every joint, we wanted to trace every wire and find every sensor, so when people report to us that this area or that area or a strut or a particular area of the orbiter experienced this or that or the other thing, we have blueprints and everything back in Houston but we wanted to see it for ourselves.

NEWS MEDIA: (Dan Billow) And just a quick follow up on that, if I may, you say you were interested in the area where the heat was reported. Just so there's no confusion, what area are you talking about?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: The left wing and left wheel well.

NEWS MEDIA: Admiral, I've asked one question, would you take another from me, sir? Do you -- have you or do you plan to do foam tile collision tests?

ADMIRAL HAROLD GEHMAN: There's -- there already have been a large number of tests done on the ability of the tile to withstand damage. Over the years, NASA has a very, very deep and rich body of knowledge of how the tile withstands damage. They have done that largely so that they can have a comparison. When an orbiter returns and there's a misshaped or broken or damaged tile, they have a big catalog of damage to tile so they can try and determine where did that come from.

We will avail ourselves of that great body of knowledge of how things damage tiles. And in addition to that, we may, we have not yet, require them to do additional testing in order to try and replicate what happened. This will depend upon how much tile we collect. And if -- and as we lay out the orbiter in the hanger over here and we begin to see tile that has marks on it that we don't recognize, we will conduct testing to try and determine what that is. But we're ahead of ourselves now, because this hasn't happened. I mean, the little bit of tile we picked up so far is unremarkable.

Thank you very much and I'll meet with you again the next time I come to Kennedy.