Bringing Columbia home

by Michael D. Leinbach · first published 2018

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 th