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	Three Members Added to Columbia Investigation Panel By Kelly Young FLORIDA TODAY posted: 07:00 am ET 06 March 2003

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HOUSTON -- The external board investigating the shuttle Columbia accident is about to add three to its ranks -- an ex-astronaut who served on the Challenger investigation; a Nobel Prize-winning physics professor; and a noted space expert -- bringing the total number to 13.

Retired Admiral Hal Gehman, who chairs the board, put in his request to NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe on Wednesday.

Sally Ride will become the second woman on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. She flew on the shuttle as America's first woman in space and has taught physics at the University of California-San Diego. In 1986, she served on the Rogers Commission, which investigated the Challenger accident.

Stanford physics professor Doug Osheroff shared a Nobel Prize in 1996 for his work on the superfluidity in helium-3. Osheroff, associate chairman of the physics department, is also known as an animated instructor of undergraduate physics at Stanford.

John Logsdon, Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, will be the board's 13th member. Logsdon is considered an expert in U.S. and international space policy. He also serves on the NASA Advisory Committee and was the chair in space history at the National Air and Space Museum.

Board spokeswoman Laura Brown said that at least some of these new members would form a new group within the board, currently divided into three subgroups. They will focus on NASA's culture, management and budget.

Brown said that Gehman likely wouldn't add more people to the board.

In addition, Gehman asked O'Keefe to replace ex-officio board member Bryan O'Connor, NASA's associate administrator for safety and mission assurance, with three-time astronaut Mike Bloomfield, who formerly served as the astronaut office's safety chief.