Bringing Columbia home - bookrastinating.com

No cover — Michael D. Leinbach: Bringing Columbia home (2018)

356 pages

English language

Published Nov. 13, 2018

ISBN:: 978-1-62872-851-4
OCLC Number:: 1007502386

On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated on reentry before the nation's eyes, and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. Author Mike Leinbach, Launch Director of the space shuttle program at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center was a key leader in the search and recovery effort as NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Service, and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies combed rural east Texas for every piece of the shuttle they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history. Leinbach shares the deeply personal stories that emerged as NASA employees looked for lost colleagues and searchers overcame immense physical, logistical, and emotional challenges to bring home the remains of the crew and nearly 40 percent of shuttle, an effort that was instrumental in piecing together what happened so the shuttle program could return to flight and complete …

On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated on reentry before the nation's eyes, and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. Author Mike Leinbach, Launch Director of the space shuttle program at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center was a key leader in the search and recovery effort as NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Service, and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies combed rural east Texas for every piece of the shuttle they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history. Leinbach shares the deeply personal stories that emerged as NASA employees looked for lost colleagues and searchers overcame immense physical, logistical, and emotional challenges to bring home the remains of the crew and nearly 40 percent of shuttle, an effort that was instrumental in piecing together what happened so the shuttle program could return to flight and complete the International Space Station.

3 editions

kino reviewed Bringing Columbia home by Michael D. Leinbach

Review of 'Bringing Columbia home' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I was lucky enough to grow up in FL at a time when you could walk outside your house or classroom to see the shuttle launches. You could hear the sonic boom when the shuttle came back As I got older I stopped paying much attention and then before you knew it, NASA's shuttle program wasn't around anymore.

This book is super thorough on what happened with Columbia and helped me understand how butt clenching every launch really is. A large portion is on the crazy search effort for the shuttle remnants, which I didn't realize involved 25,000 people.

An important thing I learned was that NASA was already beginning to spin down the shuttle program when their funding was cut. A few years ago I visited KSC and an ex-NASA volunteer had blamed the shuttle program going away on President Obama

Subjects

Columbia (Spacecraft)
Space vehicles
Recovery
Accidents
Space shuttles
Space vehicle accidents
Astronauts

Places

United States