SEQUIM — Maybe investigators should call in David Briggs to help determine if the shuttle Columbia collided with space junk before disintegrating over Texas last Saturday morning.
Seven astronauts, including two with ties to the North Olympic Peninsula, died when the shuttle came apart as it headed for landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Briggs, who retired to Sequim several years ago after a 20-year career as a shift supervisor at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operations control center for weather satellites, raised the possibility that the shuttle collided with space junk during an interview with the Peninsula Daily News two days after the tragedy.
“There’s so much junk out there, it’s difficult to miss it all,” Briggs said during that interview.
At the time, NASA officials were keying in on a piece of falling foam insulation they believed could have damaged the shuttle during launch.
NASA officials have acknowledged the possibility of a collision with space junk as one of several causes of the tragedy.
Teams from the space agency are focusing on theories ranging from the failure of a chunk of insulating foam to temperature sources and atmospheric drag on Columbia’s left wing.
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