Couple Reluctantly Give NASA Piece of Challenger Wreckage

A couple who found a piece of the space shuttle Challenger while sailing in the Bahamas have reluctantly surrendered their prize in return for a guest spot at the next shuttle launching.

Don F. and Naoma Lowe of Florence, S.C., found the 2-by-3-foot section in June. NASA identified it as a piece of a section that covered the in-flight maneuvering engines.

Mrs. Lowe said Friday that the couple wanted to keep the piece but gave it up under pressure from NASA, including a threat to seek an FBI warrant to retrieve it.

Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members. Debris fell into the Atlantic Ocean, and about 235,000 pounds was recovered and is stored in two unused missile silos here.

Asks for NASA Ruling

Dick Young, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said Lowe had written the agency to ask for an authentication of the object.

Because officials want to examine every piece of the wreckage, he said, they asked that Lowe turn it over to the space agency. He said that a NASA plane picked up the debris Thursday.

Mrs. Lowe said that she and her husband found the piece on a coral island in the Bahamian Abacos chain. She said that by consulting the report of the presidential commission that investigated the explosion, they were able to identify it as a piece of Challenger.

“We wanted NASA to verify it because we wanted to display it in museums in this area because Ron (E.) McNair was born just 23 miles away,” she said.

McNair was one of the crew members killed in the explosion. He was born in Lake City, S.C.

Mrs. Lowe said she and her husband felt that the debris was theirs because they found it in another country. She said they were disappointed but not bitter at the outcome: “We’re Christians and good citizens of this great country.”

In return for the piece of wreckage, the Lowes were given a VIP pass to view the next shuttle launching, now planned for June.