Play Book Tag discussion

Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew by Michael D. Leinbach and Jonathan H. Ward - 4 stars

“The last few seconds of telemetry received in Mission Control on February 1 indicated Columbia’s crew likely knew their ship was in trouble in the final half minute before it broke apart. The data showed that Columbia’s steering thrusters were firing to compensate for drag on the left wing, the ship was rolling, and the triply-redundant hydraulic system was losing pressure. All of those conditions would have set off alarms inside the cockpit.” – Michael D. Leinbach and Jonathan H. Ward, Bringing Columbia Home

While living in Central Florida, I used to watch the shuttles ascend to space and hear the twin sonic booms upon return. In 2003, I belonged to a professional organization and had arranged a speaker from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for our monthly meeting. His topic was to be “Risk Management in the Space Shuttle Program.” Just days before the meeting, the Columbia disaster occurred. Needless to say, the speaker canceled the engagement and I have always wondered what he would have said.

This book is written by the Launch Director of KSC for Columbia STS-107, the flight that ended disaster when it disintegrated upon reentry on February 1, 2003. He provides an inside view to the sequence of events during the loss of signal, notification of the crew's families, retrieval of remains, collection of debris across a 250-mile swath of East Texas, reconstruction of the debris, and proof of what went wrong. He does not try to avoid responsibility. It is told in a logical, step-by-step manner with lots of details on the people, processes, and technology involved. It may be too detailed for some readers, but it is exactly what I would expect from a technical professional with an engineering background.

”’Prove to me that it’s not safe to come home’ demonstrates a very different management culture than ‘prove to me that it is safe to come home.’ The former attitude quashes arguments and debates when there is no hard evidence to support a concern. It allows people to talk themselves into a false sense of security. The latter encourages exploration of an issue and development of contingencies.”

The book is well-organized. Footnotes and informative diagrams are provided, along with a glossary of technical terms and photos. It is difficult to keep track of the numerous participants’ names and the tech-talk gets a little cumbersome at times, but the paragraphs summarizing each chapter are particularly well-crafted and enlightening. The authors balance human-interest stories with methodical root-cause analysis.

The authors highlight many little-known facts, such as the key contributions of the Texas Forest Service and wildland firefighting crews to the search and recovery efforts. I was not previously aware that two searchers had died. It is a historic record of events done at a time when people still remember (and are still around). It is a fitting tribute to the over 25,000 people and 450 federal, state, local, and volunteer organizations that came together to help in the aftermath of the disaster.

Everyone agrees on two remarkable facts: The Columbia recovery was the largest ground search effort in American history; and it was also one with no internal strife, bickering, or inter-agency squabbles. Everyone involved had a single goal and worked collectively to achieve it - to bring Columbia and her crew home.

The cockpit window frames of Columbia and a fuselage section of Challenger are on display at the Space Shuttle Atlantis building of the KSC Visitors Complex. I have seen this memorial and found it very moving. This book is recommended to anyone interested in the past, present, or future of space exploration.

Link to My GR Review

Thanks Joi, this looks really interesting (although perhaps a bit painful to read?)

Side note: Last year at Seattle's Museum of Flight my daughter lost me for a few moments and ended up having to go to the desk to ask for help because I'd got distracted by a photograph of "teacher in space" Christa McAuliffe and paused to have a brief weep - I was 9 when it happened and the images of the explosion are burned into my brain. I can't begin to imagine what it was like for the schoolchildren who were watching the live broadcast.

Nikki, it was sad in parts, of course, but the authors did a very nice job of protecting the privacy of the families and did not go into any great detail about what happened to the astronauts.

I was very moved by the tributes to both Columbia and Challenger that are displayed in the memorial area of KSC. If you ever get a chance to go there, I recommend it highly. There's so much to do and see. It's about an hour's drive from Orlando.