SEAN O'KEEFE: First and foremost, I want to thank all the members of the press corps for the very dignified and extremely thoughtful manner in which the stories were covered here on the transfer of human remains from Barksdale Air Force Base to Dover, Delaware and the treatment of that particular effort.

Our Deputy Administrator, Fred Gregory, a former astronaut, was there to preside over that particular activity as the honor guard was rendered, and, again, the manner in which that was treated is most appreciated, recognizing not only the solemnity of the event, but, also, I think, the importance of the sensitivity of this to the families and to all of us, I think, as humans.

I want to update you on a handful of different points that just given the pace of events that have been occurring here in the last few days. It's an opportunity, I think, to kind of look at a couple of other factors that are involved.

First of all, I had an opportunity on Monday as was reported to meet with the President following that set of briefings and discussions with him on the events that have occurred since the morning of Saturday, February 1st. I have had the chance to meet Monday evening with the leadership of the House and Senate and the Chairman and ranking members, in most cases of not only the committees of jurisdiction for NASA, the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Science Committee, as well as the chair and ranking members of the Appropriations Committee and other interested members Monday evening.

Again, yesterday, I had an opportunity to a broader congressional group to present the same information to update them on the facts and circumstances and the time line milestones, if you will, on how we have been proceeding since Saturday February 1 to not only review the evidence and the facts that may have lead to the causes of this terrible accident, but also to come to conclusions about what that may tell us about the corrections that need to be made so we can get back to exploration and flying as soon as possible. And safely as the paramount operational objective.

The Congress and the members that we have had an opportunity to brief and to discuss the information, we have taken that aboard and we have gotten lots of different input from them in terms of approaches taken. All of that has been extremely helpful. I think it's been a spirited exchange and dialogue, and I'm hopeful that the sense there is the same. We will endeavor to continue to brief members of Congress and their principal staff on the events as we know them and as we have attempted to do so with the members of the press, as well.

Also, I would like to mention the international response to the events of February 1st and the consequences of this horrible tragedy have been conveyed as recently as today.

There were a very large attendance of the diplomatic corps as well as several of my counterparts in various nations and their space agency administrators, directors and heads of agencies who were here in town for today's memorial service at the National Cathedral. We are most grateful to the vice president for his presiding over that activity to honor the crew of STS-107.

The international response, again, we had an opportunity shortly after the memorial service to meet with them here at NASA Headquarters and brief them on, again, the same kind of information and understanding of the events that have occurred since February 1st, as well as the process we're engaging in in order to ascertain the causes of this terrible tragedy and brief them this afternoon.

Again, Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory provided a rather extensive run through of that set of circumstances. I had an opportunity to meet with several of my counterparts at heads of agencies, as well as principal representatives here who were visiting, and they include, again, predominantly, our partners in the International Space Station activity, but, also, many other members of the diplomatic corps and other space agency activities even not associated there with that specific program.

Overwhelmingly, their expression of support as well as condolences for the families of the crew of Columbia, but also I think a support for the approach we are committed to, which is finding the facts, letting the evidence speak for what may ultimately inform us as to what were the causes of this circumstance and this terrible accident, that we make the corrections necessary in order to resume safe flight operations. There is overwhelming support, I think, for that set of objectives.

Also, today, I had a chance to brief the chairman and several members of the NASA Advisory Council who were here as well for the memorial service and also had a chance to walk them through the details as well as the process we are engaging in to define the facts, examine the evidence, determine what appropriate corrections are necessary in order to resume safe flight operations.

They are planning to adjust their agenda and schedule for the upcoming NASA Advisory Council meeting coming up in order to provide a more comprehensive look at that moment or that point in time which that meeting will occur, so they are advised and apprised of all the activities leading up to this at the time.

Between now and then, we will, of course, continue to keep the chairmen and members advised of developments as we are with the press as well as members of Congress.

Let me speak for just a moment here about the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which, again, I think you will recall was activated as part of our contingency plan on the day of the accident. By mid afternoon, the members had been notified on Saturday afternoon, the 1st of February as they are identified as part of our contingency plan.

I spoke to Admiral Hal Gehman later that day in his first meeting or informal tele-conference, if you will, of all the members of the board was conducted at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday afternoon. So, it was a little less than seven hours after the event is when they first had their opportunity to meet and to at least exchange understanding of what the approach would be in the manner in which they would proceed at that time.

By the next afternoon, by early afternoon, Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory accompanied them and picked up all the members and brought them to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana by mid afternoon on Sunday, the 2nd of February. So, they were all there and began their first proceedings face to face at that time.

Admiral Gehman advises us how he will be and has left the Barksdale Air Force Base activities and is now at Johnson Space Center. I will have the opportunity to meet with him tomorrow. I'm planning to spend a little time discussing with him the approach that the Board intends to take, how can we be supportive of their activities to provide all the evidence, all the facts necessary for them to reach an understanding of the set of conclusions of what caused this accident, the support he may need administratively, and any other variety that's necessary in order to reach an understanding here in the next few weeks.

So, it's their determination of how long they will spend there at Johnson will be guided by that, and that's entirely up to Admiral Gehman and his members of that Board.

Again, our approach and our objective here is too help facilitate in any way that the Board feels is appropriate to provide the evidence and the facts to give us the best opportunity to reach collisions as expeditiously as the Board feels they can in order to understand the events that led to this accident so we can get on to understanding what the conclusions or fixes may be in order to, solutions may be to this particular set of problem, however they may merge, and get back to operating safely as soon as we possibly can, based and guided by their findings in that respect.

We are conducting, as you have heard from recent briefings, as recently as yesterday from Johnson Space Center, a fault-tree analysis, in other words, every single piece of evidence, every fact, ever issue that we could possibly think would contribute to this case has been devised as part of this fault tree and the analysis is under way in order to make sure we have literally checked each box on everything necessary to support that analysis as this trail remains warm at this time so that we can look at all the data, all the information before it's either gone cold as a trail or has modified over the course of time, given the circumstances.

So, we want to insure that that fault-tree analysis is conducted as quickly as possible, and the facts and evidence collection process is apace.

As again, you have also heard and I think it has been reiterated and is not coincidental, it is something, I think, we have very clearly committed ourselves to, is that we want the facts and the evidence to speak to the conclusions, ultimately inform the conclusions in terms of what caused this horrific event.

In doing so, we do not want to rule out any theory, any approach, any possible set of factors that could be when combined lead to some other judgment. That is a determination that the Columbia Accident Investigation Board will render.

And, as a consequence there, to absolutely assure that that judgment be rendered from the Board and only from the Board in terms of how we will be informed about what the causes and ultimate consequences here may need to be in terms of the approach of fixing and solving some of the issues to get back to safe operations, is we have been advised by the Board that certain clarifications of the Charter to assure the Board's independence be modified. Those modifications, we have immediately agreed to.

The clarification of that charter has been promulgated. We will certainly make those copies of the charter revisions to you. They will be posted on the web site here within moments, I suspect. We will certainly make sure a hard copy is available for those of you who cannot access that at exactly this time.

This is to absolutely guarantee that there is, you know, we have eliminated any ambiguity as to the independence of this Board. They are, again, acting in a manner that we have, the spirit of which was incorporated in the original charter, as well. This is a clarification of that charge to simply reinforce that independence of this group. We really want to be sure that there is no ambiguity whatsoever and that we are not eliminating any set of possibilities of what could have contributed to this accident, that we will be informed by the Board's judgment in that regard.

To that point is an illustration, I think, of the independence. The Board is considering the addition of members to the board. Several members of Congress have so suggested that they do so, to add additional expertise or some other dimension or view that may give them another avenue or way of looking at the set of issues.

Again, the approach to that, I think has been universally advocated, which we thoroughly agree with is the folks that maybe considered not have a specific association or involvement directly with activities related to NASA so as to insure their independence, as well, as is the characteristic of Admiral Hal Gehman.

That particular proposition has been discussed with Admiral Gehman. He has certainly expressed a willingness to consider additional members to the extent that they add another dimension of review that, again, not only guarantees independence, but also gives additional perspective that consider to be beneficial or helpful.

So, I think you can reasonably expect additional revisions in the near future at the direction or at the prerogative or decision of Admiral Hal Gehman.

Again, we are going to be guided by the Board's findings. There is, I think, the intention here very clearly is they will reach conclusions and they will come from them, and only them. Anything that we offer or you hear during the course of this should be treated as view or opinion or position and anything that is other than fact based or evidence based is something that might give us a general idea or direction of what we think may have been the contributing causes to this particular case, and all that is something we want to encourage everybody in the NASA family to continue to do, is to continue to think, explore very extensively the full breath of all the things that could possibly have contributed to this, so that we're not ruling anything out and we're not missing anything.

And, again, part of the reason it is most beneficial to insure as extensive and as contemporary a release of that, the facts and information as we gather the evidence is to assure that others outside the NASA community are also so informed and can help provide some thoughts of exactly which approached or what evidence we may have been overlooking anything.

There is great benefit in that approach and it's one that we are receiving lots and lots of different ideas of how to proceed and consider looking at evidence and facts and ultimately to serve up to the Board as an opportunity for them to make judgment about where that meat may lead us.

But, again, I want to be sure we are very clear about the point that any view we express in this regards does not foreclose, doesn't close out, doesn't eliminate any theory, any conclusion that could be drawn, because ultimately those are the conclusions that only the Board will be authorized to make.

So, we will not have competing decisions on this. This is going to be a procession where the Board findings is what we will guided by, and that was the point when that Board was activated on February the 1st. It was the objective of the contingency plan when it was written. It is a hard, hard legacy of a lesson learned from post-Challenger experience, and we intend to absolutely guarantee that we not relive an experience in any way, shape or form that we have had previously. There is no further education from the second revisitation of any of those cases.

So, as a consequence, we have learned a lot from that. This is one of the object lessons, this process is a direct outgrowth of that, and we intend to be guided by that in order to show that's the case.

Lastly, I would observe that, again, members of Congress and the leadership there, particularly, have been most helpful and most supportive of assuring that all the facts and all the evidence be released in a timely manner to inform not only the public, but also to help contribute towards this larger task of running to ground truth, what it's going to take in order to determine the findings, gather the evidence, determine what the solutions may be as a consequence of those findings, fix that case and get on with the safe operations of what we do every day in support of all the important missions that we are engaged in.

In that respect and in an attempt to ensure the fullness of the exploration, if you will, in getting all the information as well as views, both Chairman McCain of the Senate Commerce Committee and Chairman Bullart of the Chair of the Science Committee of the House have agreed to a joint hearing which be conducted on Wednesday morning at 9:30 -- I believe that's been announced. I fully intend to be there, without a doubt.

Their offer and request to me was "How soon can we put this together," and my response to them each and every time the inquiry was made was "As soon as you are prepared to convene a hearing." That's when we are anxious and ready to go to discuss all the facts, all the evidence, all the information and any other discussion the members would like to have about the matter in which we are conducting this activity. We really are committed, absolutely committed to finding out what caused this accident.

There is no other higher objective, I think, than to doing that to not only determine the cause of this, but for no other reason than for the sake of the families involved. They have been nothing short of heroic and inspirational to all of us in the NASA family in the manner they have dealt with the most devastating of human loss, and that is a loss of the member of your family, and the manner in which they approach this, I think is something that, again, not only inspires all of us, but recommits us each and every day to that important objective of assuring that we find out the answers to this, and to honor their wish that we make the corrections and get about the business of flying safely again, and that's what we are committed to doing.

So, I thank you for your time and attention. Again, I do -- I've been advised I have to get on here. We are planning again to meet Johnson Space Center with Admiral Gehman here to work through all of the requirements we have in order to support the Board's activity. We are preparing for that. I think we are about to shift to Ron Dittemore and the folks at Johnson Space Center for further update here on where we are on technical information.

Thank you all, very much, for your time.