The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) will conduct its first press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m. EST. The press briefing is in the Teague auditorium at the Johnson Space Center, Houston.

Board Chairman, retired Navy Admiral Harold W. Gehman Jr., and other board members, will discuss their activities to date, CAIB structure, and plans for the investigation.

Other board members are: · Maj. Gen. John L. Barry, Director, Plans and Programs, Headquarters USAF Materiel Command, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio; · Brig. Gen Duane W. Deal, Commander 21st Space Wing, Peterson AFB, Colo.; · James Hallock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Draper Lab); · Maj. Gen. Kenneth W. Hess, USAF Chief of Safety, Washington, and Commander, Air Force Safety Center, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.; · Scott Hubbard, Director NASA Ames Research Center, Calif.; · Roger E. Tetrault, former chairman of McDermott International, Inc.; · Rear Adm. Stephen A. Turcotte, Commander, Naval Safety Center, Norfolk, Va.; · Steven Wallace, Director, FAA Office of Accident Investigation.

Theron M. Bradley Jr., NASA's Chief Engineer; and Bryan D. O'Connor, NASA's Associate Administrator are providing NASA's support to the board for Safety and Mission Assurance.

The press conference will be broadcast on NASA Television; reporters may ask questions form selected NASA centers. NASA Television is broadcast on AMC-2, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz.

More information about NASA is on the Internet at:

www.nasa.gov

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