Bringing Columbia Home, Michael D. Leinbach
Bringing Columbia Home, Michael D. Leinbach
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Bringing Columbia Home
The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew

Author: Michael D. Leinbach, Jonathan H. Ward, Robert Crippen

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell, Danny Campbell

Unabridged: 10 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/24/2018


Synopsis

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 an area of rural east Texas the size of Rhode Island for every piece of the shuttle and her crew they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history.

For the first time, here is the definitive inside story of the Columbia disaster and recovery and the inspiring message it ultimately holds. In the aftermath of tragedy, people and communities came together to help bring home the remains of the crew and nearly forty 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. Bringing Columbia Home shares the deeply personal stories that emerged as NASA employees looked for lost colleagues and searchers overcame immense physical, logistical, and emotional challenges and worked together to accomplish the impossible.

About Michael D. Leinbach

Michael D. Leinbach was the last launch director in the space shuttle program at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, responsible for overall shuttle launch countdown activities until the end of the program in 2011. In November 2004, Leinbach was awarded the prestigious 2004 Presidential Rank Award. He lives in Scottsmoor, Florida.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kate

I am a total NASA nerd. Reading about the history of manned space flight is one of my passions, so I was really looking forward to this book’s release. I remember the day Columbia broke up vividly. And this book is really interesting, because it’s not about the launch, where Columbia was doomed, or......more

Goodreads review by Katie

On the morning of February 1, 2003, I was in my car and tuned in to the local NPR radio station. Despite working in the space industry, I hadn't been following shuttle missions very closely, so I wasn't expecting to hear anything in particular about Columbia's return. But I was confused to hear an a......more

Utterly stultifying, unless you love logistics as much as the authors do. So if you want to know how many government agencies responded to the crisis, how many people searched which grid coordinates (and what they wore and how many eggs they collectively ate for breakfast), how much debris they reco......more