Launch On Need - The Quest To Save Columbia's Crew

by Daniel Guiteras

When NASA learns Columbia's heat shield is damaged and that it cannot support reentry, the race begins to find a way to rescue the crew before Columbia's resources run out. (Based on a rescue plan developed for Columbia by NASA engineers.)

370 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 12, 2010

Reviews

[Keith Watts · Rating 2 out of 5]

The elevator pitch for "Launch on Need" is brilliant. "What if NASA management had heeded the warnings of their engineers post STS-107 launch and initiated a rescue mission?"

What a fantastic idea with so many great characters to follow. The Columbia crew, stranded in space in a broken orbiter. The Atlantis crew, on a race against time to get ready for their unprecedented mission. The engineers, maintenance personnel and mission controllers tasked with the most difficult of jobs in the most demanding of circumstances... none of whom this book bothers to cast as it's lead.

Instead we get a journalist. Ok... that could be an interesting take I suppose. Oh but he spends the first half of the book wallowing in grief and self pity over the death of his wife a year ago from cancer.

Sure, sure, sure, cancer bad, death sad. But that's not why I picked up this book. The front half is a total slog. Once the Atlantis launches on it's rescue mission the activity picks up and the author proves to be a deft hand at technical but still exciting action prose.

It's just too bad we know next to nothing about any of the eleven crew members participating in the rescue. There's no emotional weight behind the dramatic events playing out 200 miles up at 20,000 miles per hour.

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...just...wow. It’s easy to forget while reading this book that this is not how things went, that the anxiety and hope that the author builds for Columbia’s rescue is fictional, the crew is long lost, if nowhere near forgotten. It’s The Martian meets Apollo 13 meets the Miracle on the Hudson. While the finale is a little anticlimactic, it’s fitting that the author doesn’t overplay it; we’re glad this fictional crew made it home, but we know that real life didn’t play out like this. It’s doubt the author’s implication that a Columbia rescue would have averted war in Iraq, or at least spurred further investigation before moving forward, but if you’re going to dream of what might have been, might as well dream big.

Kudos.

[Noah Varav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dan Guiteras was my neighbor when I was growing up, and he published this back when I was in 5th grade. Dan was the best. I remember him explaining the Apollo missions to me and my neighbors in the middle of our cul de sac during hot summer nights, and his passion for space and NASA inspired me to become a space nerd as well. I’ll never forget his hilarious description of what would happen to me if my motion sick-prone body was put through the astronaut training program (hint: lots of vomit). He suggested I make a movie about astronauts instead (I haven’t yet, but one day I will). I read this as soon as I could get my hands on it, and I’ve returned to it many times ever since. This is such a tightly constructed, smartly written thriller. The last 100 pages specifically grabbed my imagination as an elementary schooler and has never let it go. I’ve probably read it more than any other book, give or take a few Harry Potter’s.

Dan passed away shortly after this was published. I wish I could tell him how much this book means to me, and how much our conversations about the final frontier have stuck with me over the years. Thank you Dan. I hope you’re enjoying your view among the stars.

[David Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding read!

I pretty much read this from beginning to end, with only a few bio breaks. This is the best NASA based fiction I ever read. The author has Clancyesque skill at blending technical details with human stories into a seamless and gripping story.