spacetoday.net: Columbia panel to add more members

Posted: Sun, Feb 16, 2003, 10:20 PM ET (0320 GMT)
STS-107 patch (NASA)

The independent panel investigating the shuttle Columbia accident will add three new members in the coming week, including a former Secretary of the Air Force. Harold Gehman, chairman of the accident investigation panel (AIB), confirmed this weekend that he will appoint three new members. One of the new members will be Sheila Widnall, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT who served as Secretary of the Air Force during part of the Clinton Administration. Gehman said that Widnall's expertise in aerodynamics was the reason why she would be joining the board. The other appointments are expected to be announced in the coming week. The appointments are designed to give the AIB additional expertise, but also have the effect of reducing criticism that the board is not truly independent of NASA. The original members of the board had been appointed by NASA and reporters later found that the one member appointed to the board since then, Roger Tetrault, had past business dealings with Sean O'Keefe.