NASA looks for secret shuttle box

BRONSON, Texas -- Debris crews combed an area along the Texas-Louisiana border for the wreckage of a secret device that allowed the encryption of communications between NASA and the shuttle Columbia.

NASA spokesman John Ira Petty said Friday that finding the box was a high priority because officials feared its technology could be used "to send bogus signals" to the other shuttles during future flights.

Officials did not explain why they focused their search on an area around Bronson, which is in East Texas.

David Williams, an on-scene search coordinator with the Environmental Protection Agency, said searchers spent Thursday in an area near Bronson. "They said they came out of there with very little," he said.