one of the space shuttle main engine turbopumps was pulled out of the mud at Fort Polk, Louisiana, on February 15. Another was found on March 30 and retrieved on April 1. Still traveling supersonically when they impacted the ground after the accident, the heavy pieces of machinery buried themselves fourteen feet deep. These dense engine components flew farther than any debris after the shuttle broke up, and their trajectory was unaffected by winds aloft. The path from the point where the shuttle broke up near Palestine to where the powerheads impacted near Fort Polk defined the initial
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