TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: HAIL COLUMBIA

A few hours ago, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry, killing all seven crewmembers. Our thoughts and prayers are with the crewmembers' families and with a grieving world shocked by this tragedy.

Over the next few days, every news organization on the planet will be following this story closely. To keep up to date with the recovery efforts and the subsequent investigations, two sites you should bookmark and visit frequently are Yahoo Full Coverage's Space Shuttle page at

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=Science&cat=Space_Shuttle

and Google News at

http://news.google.com/ .

NASA TV is also a wonderful resource for news straight from the US space agency. NASA TV is broadcast on GE-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.

If you have Windows Media Player, you can also watch NASA TV online at

http://www.broadcast.com/learning_and_education/science/space/nasa/nasa_tele vision/ .

You may need to cut and paste this link so that it appears on one line in your browser's address bar.

Real Player users can watch NASA TV online at

http://198.116.66.254:8080/ramgen/encoder/live.rm .

If neither of these links work, please visit

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html .

The two US newspapers that will offer the best, most informed coverage of this tragedy are the Houston Chronicle and the Huntsville Times. Houston is the home of the Johnson Space Center, responsible for manned space flight, and Huntsville is home of the Marshall Space Flight Center, responsible for space propulsion and design. The hometown newspapers in both towns are packed with journalists who are experts in space flight and Shuttle operations.

The Houston Chronicle's "SpaceChronicle" page is at

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/space/index.html .

I do want to warn you that the SpaceChronicle page is currently displaying a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration radar image from Shreveport, Louisiana, showing the path of Columbia debris as it moves across Texas into Louisiana. This image is quite disturbing.

The Huntsville Times doesn't have a site of its own, rather it publishes its content on the al.com site at

http://www.al.com/huntsvilletimes/

The Huntsville Times does not update its articles as often as the Houston Chronicle does, so expect a little lag.

For our fellow TOURBUS riders in Texas and Louisiana, NASA would like for me to pass the following information on to you:

Anyone who believes they have found debris related to Columbia should call the Johnson Space Center Emergency Operations Center, (281)-483-3388. Be aware that hazardous chemicals may be present; do not disturb or move any debris.

All debris is United States Government property and is critical to the investigation of the shuttle accident. Any and all debris from the accident is to be left alone and reported to Government authorities. Unauthorized persons found in possession of accident debris will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Let me add that if you do locate any debris, contact not only the Johnson Space Center but also you local or county law enforcement agency.

Finally, let me say again that our thoughts and prayers are with the crewmembers' families and with a grieving world shocked by this tragedy.

Hail Columbia.