NASA Spokesman in Russia: No Single Version of
Columbia Shuttle Tragedy in Place Yet

 

by EDUARD PUZYREV, RIA NOVOSTI

MISSION CONTROL CENTER /KOROLEV, MOSCOW REGION/, MARCH 18–The independent commission of Admiral Geman, looking into what caused the catastrophe of the Columbia shuttle spaceship, has not yet shaped an single version.

Sergei Puzanov, public relations coordinator at the NASA office in the Russian Mission Control Center, said this on Tuesday.

The fact-finding commission is working on 7 to 8 versions and seems to come to the conclusion that there was no single cause of the fault but, rather, a set of circumstances that led to the crash.

It is too early to talk of when space flights will be resumed, stressed Puzanov.

Simultaneously, he expressed the hope that, upon the completion of work of the Geman commission and its conclusions /for which it has only 60 days/, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration will in April fix flight dates and timeframes for the remaining three shuttles.