Bringing Columbia Home by Michael D Leinbach

Bringing Columbia Home by Michael D Leinbach

Voted the Best Space Book of 2018 by the Space Hipsters

The dramatic inside story of the epic search and recovery operation after the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

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. This comprehensive account is told in four parts:

• Parallel Confusion
• Courage, Compassion, and Commitment
• Picking Up the Pieces
• A Bittersweet Victory

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 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. 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.

Featuring a foreword and epilogue by astronauts Robert Crippen and Eileen Collins, and dedicated to the astronauts and recovery search persons who lost their lives, this is an incredible, compelling narrative about the best of humanity in the darkest of times and about how a failure at the pinnacle of human achievement became a story of cooperation and hope.

American author Jonathan Ward spent several years of his childhood in Japan, but he considers the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D. C. to be his hometown. Although he has a wide variety of interests and has worked in many fields, space exploration is his lifelong passion. His joy of bringing the space program to life for the general public began in high school, when he served as a volunteer tour guide at the National Air and Space Museum during the Apollo 15 and 16 missions. He continues his public outreach today, as a Solar System Ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as a frequent speaker on space exploration topics to interest groups and at regional conferences and as an author for Springer-Praxis. Jonathan is also a frequent contributor to online space exploration forums.

Jonathan brings a unique perspective to his writing that marries a systems view of the topic, fascination with the technology, passion for space exploration and deep respect for the people who make it all happen. He holds an MS in Systems Management from the University of Denver and a BS in Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is professionally certified as an executive coach by the International Coach Federation, and serves on the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership. His professional experience includes extensive work with leadership teams and several years with Boeing on the Space Station Freedom program.

Jonathan and his wife Jane now reside in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is fiercely proud of his two grown children and their families and he wishes they lived closer to him. He maintains a website to document his research on the Apollo era at Kennedy Space Center. He collects and restores artefacts from the Apollo era, including several control panels from the Firing Rooms. Jonathan also notes that he might possibly be the only current space author who has appeared on two GRAMMY-winning albums, which were recorded during his years as a Bass II section leader, soloist and eventually president of The Washington Chorus.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9781628728514
ISBN 10	1628728515
Titel	Bringing Columbia Home
Autor	Michael D Leinbach
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	Arcade Publishing
Erscheinungsjahr	2018-02-08
Seitenanzahl	400
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar