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\h        Mike Ciannilli,Columbia project manager,NASA's Kennedy Space Center: Well recently NASA received a call from

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\h        the Sheriff's Department in Nacogdoches, Texas, spotting a large metallic object on the shores of Lake Nacogdoches.

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\h        So we asked them for a picture. They sent the best photographic evidence they had. We reviewed it.

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\h        We have a great team of engineers here at the space center.

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\h        We reviewed the photographs, confirmed it is indeed a piece of Columbia,

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\h        so now we are formulating a plan to go extract the piece from its current location,

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\h        do it in a safe manner preserving the integrity of the piece and bring it home.

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\h        The piece that was recovered was a cryogenic tank from the PRSD,

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\h        the Power Reactant Storage Distribution System.

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\h        As you can see on this model, the power reactant storage and distribution system is a series of,

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\h        in Columbia's case, 18 tanks.

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\h        We had a series of 10 tanks in the midbody of the vehicle and then we also had a pallet which we call the EDO pallet,

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\h        the Extended Duration Orbiter pallet, which consisted of an additional

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\h        eight tank in the rear of the cargo bay of the shuttle.

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\h        That allowed us to stay on orbit longer.

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\h        STS-107 was a long-duration mission, so that pallet allowed us to stay on orbit

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\h        operations longer and it's one of those tanks.

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\h        We get many calls every single year.

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\h        A majority of the calls do not turn out to be components of Columbia.

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\h        We really appreciate the citizens that take the time to call us and we take each call very seriously.

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\h        We ask for photographs. We'll analyze those photographs with the teams that are the experts in those systems.

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\h        If it's determined to be a piece of Columbia or likely to be a piece of Columbia,

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\h        we'll actually have the piece sent in for further study.

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\h        And occasionally, on average once a month we get a phone call.

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\h        Our current plan is to bring it back to KSC, however it's going to be a little difficult in this case.

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\h        In this case it's resting on the shoreline, the new shoreline, of Lake Nacogdoches and with the water receding,

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\h        the ground around it is very soft, as you can imagine so we need to be a little innovative,

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\h        a little creative, with how we're going to go actually get the piece.

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\h        It's not accessible to vehicles at this current time with the current soil conditions.

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\h        So we have to be a little creative and get out there and get the piece.

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\h        We also want to preserve the integrity of the piece, so we have to be very careful with how we extract it,

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\h        clean it up and remove it and then transport it to Kennedy Space Center.

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\h        It's not hazardous at all. Our primary concern is the possibility of exposed sharp metal,

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\h        so we certainly don't want anybody approaching it.

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\h        Local authorities are watching over the tank for us and we don't want anybody to get hurt,

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\h        but there's no hazardous commodities onboard the tank.

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\h        We recovered approximately 40 percent of the vehicle,

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\h        which is a very large percentage given the upper atmospheric dynamics of the accident.

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\h        So we do have a large percentage of the vehicle. However,

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\h        it's very hard for us to estimate how much is left in the field and pieces do continue to come in.

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\h        We make a very strong effort to recover all of Columbia, ever since the accident.

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\h        We have in a repository over 84,000 pieces of Columbia that are housed in the Vehicle Assembly Building.

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\h        They're part of a very extensive loan program,

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\h        so education facilities and researchers around the country can request pieces for loan and use those

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\h        pieces to continue research for more stronger spacecraft for future operations,

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\h        and also as an educational platform for students to learn about failure analysis,

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\h        science, engineering and physics in the upper atmosphere.

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\h        So, much like the 107 mission was a mission of research, we like to continue and honor the legacy of