Local Shuttle News

The vast majority of shuttle debris is concentrated in East Texas, but it appears that some of it landed in the Denton area. The Denton Record Chronicle is reporting that a Denton County crew found what could be human remains on the roof of the Denton County Courts Building (may require registration):

Suspected human remains were found on top of the Denton County Courts Building on East McKinney Street Tuesday morning during a search of county property. County officials called in federal agents to collect the object later that afternoon.

Jody Gonzalez, Denton County fire marshal and emergency management coordinator, accompanied FBI agents to the roof of the building shortly before 5 p.m.

"An employee of the county facilities department found an unknown object about 10:30 a.m. this morning in the process of checking rooftops of county buildings," Mr. Gonzalez said.

He said the object appeared to be a bone about the size of a half-dollar and "burned in appearance." He said he did not touch the object, and so could not say whether it was of human origin.

"I've looked at plenty of charred bones in my time, but I didn't touch or manipulate it," he said.

About a block away, a man found a charred piece of metal that was possibly from the shuttle in the parking lot of the Apple Creek Apartment complex (I used to live there a few years ago).

A piece of debris suspected to be from the space shuttle Columbia was found in Denton and turned over to authorities Monday, and a team from the Environmental Protection Agency collected suspected shuttle pieces in Corinth.

Keith Black of Denton found a piece of debris Sunday night in the parking lot of Applecreek Apartments off East McKinney Street.

"I wasn't even thinking of space shuttle parts; it was just a funny-looking piece on the ground, so I just kicked it over and then I brought it into the house," he said Monday. "When I got it into the light, then I recognized that it probably was an aircraft part."

The debris is a piece of scorched woven metal about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide. Mr. Black, who was in the Air Force between 1974 and 1979, said he thought it looked like a piece of aircraft fuel-line sheathing.

Also from the same article, it appears that possible debris has been found in other parts of the Denton County area:

In Corinth around 6:15 p.m. Monday, EPA collectors picked up the suspected space shuttle debris from the home of Mike and Terri Baker. The pieces were found Saturday scattered around their home and in the back of Mr. Baker's pickup truck.

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Mr. Fisher said he and his collection team, a crew of private technicians contracted by the EPA, have been busy since Saturday collecting suspected space shuttle debris in Ennis, Waxahachie, Nacogdoches, Irving, Garland and Plano. He said his next stop was in Little Elm.

Posted by Aubrey at February 5, 2003 09:34 AM