NASA worker charged with stealing shuttle debris

ORLANDO - A Kennedy Space Center employee accused of stealing debris while helping to recover parts of the space shuttle Columbia was released Thursday on $25,000 bail.

Michael Pankiewicz, 44, was arrested Wednesday and charged with embezzling government property, transporting stolen government property and making a false statement to federal investigators, said Carolyn Adams, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney. She wouldn't say what shuttle part or parts he was accused of taking.

Pankiewicz is accused of keeping debris he found when he was assigned with other federal workers and volunteers to search eastern Texas for remnants of Columbia.

HOUSTON - Columbia accident investigators received the latest evidence from NASA's own inquiry team Thursday and began the lengthy process of sorting through the information and settling on a cause of the disaster.

The piece of foam insulation that struck the space shuttle's left wing during liftoff in January remains the No. 1 suspect for creating the breach that let in hot atmospheric gases and led to the ship's breakup Feb. 1.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board believes a seal from the leading edge of the left wing, or part of a seal or adjoining panel, was damaged by the foam that broke off the shuttle's fuel tank during liftoff.

Something floated away from the orbiting shuttle one day later and was almost certainly the piece on the wing that was struck.

Accident investigators said Thursday a 10-inch piece of the seal in question was identified in the wreckage at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That means either the rest of that seal - or an adjoining seal or partial wing panel - is what drifted away.

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