Fallen astronaut’s diary recovered
Experts piece together notebook used by Israeli during Columbia mission
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:45 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2005
NEW ORLEANS – A small heap of paper that survived the fiery
disintegration of space shuttle Columbia, a 38-mile fall to Earth and
two months of exposure to rain and sun in a Texas field has been
painstakingly restored by forensic scientists, yielding the flight
diary and notes of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.
Scientists used computer image-enhancement technology and infrared
light to read the charred and tattered pages and pieced some of them
together like jigsaw puzzles.
Not everything could be deciphered. But Sharon Brown, the Israeli
police document examiner who pieced the material together, said she was
amazed that the metal-ring cardboard-bound notebook had even survived.
