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

STS-121—the second post- Columbia return-to-flight mission—launched on July 4, 2006. The external tank only lost a minor amount of foam, and it occurred after the most critical time during ascent to orbit. The flaw that had doomed Columbia was finally fixed. Much to many people’s amusement, bird droppings seen on the shuttle’s right wing several days before launch were detected in the on-orbit inspections. [17] “Bird Droppings Survive Space Launch,” Washington Post , July 5, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/05/AR2006070501242.html . Otherwise, the mission was nearly flawless.

The shuttle had come roaring back.

Between 2006 and 2011, the three remaining shuttles in America’s fleet flew twenty more missions after STS-121. Their crews completed the International Space Station and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope one final time. There were no other accidents or close calls during the rest of the Shuttle Program. NASA’s diligence following the Columbia accident paid off.

The Constellation Program had been making slow and steady progress, but its only flights were a test of the Ares I-X rocket in 2009 and a test of the launch escape system in 2010. As has happened all too often with NASA’s budgets over the years, the agency did not receive the funding it needed to realize its ambitious vision. In 2009, a presidential commission reported Constellation to be so far behind schedule, over budget, and underfunded that it was impossible for the program to meet any of its goals. The administration removed Constellation from NASA’s fiscal year 2010 budget, effectively canceling the program. Meanwhile, NASA had already been moving forward with the termination of the Space Shuttle Program after STS-134.

With Constellation canceled and the shuttle winding down, NASA was in a bind. The Commercial Crew program was born, calling for private companies to build vehicles and operate flights to the ISS under NASA charter. However, the program was still in its infancy, and the first commercial crew flights were at least four years away. NASA decided to extend the Space Shuttle Program with one final mission to carry supplies, equipment, spare parts, and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the ISS. But the transfer of decades of knowledge and talent to the subsequent program—a critical success factor in the early days of America’s manned spaceflight programs—would not be possible.

Atlantis rolled out to Pad 39A on June 1, 2011, for STS-135. Many people at KSC had spent their entire careers working with the space shuttles. It seemed impossible to believe this would be the final mission.

I ruffled some feathers by openly addressing the issue with the Firing Room personnel—most of whom were contractors—at the conclusion of the launch simulation. Most members of our launch team had been together for twenty or more years. Many of these wonderful, dedicated people had taken part in the search for Columbia or had worked in the reconstruction hangar. Virtually all of the contractors were going to be laid off when the STS-135 mission ended, and no one had addressed the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room. So I told my team what I really thought. As politically inappropriate as it was, I apologized to them on behalf of NASA. I got spanked for that, but I felt it was the right thing to do for my team.

We launched STS-135 on July 8, 2011. Atlantis returned to KSC in a predawn landing twelve days later. Completion of the ISS was cause for celebration, but it also meant the end of the Space Shuttle Program. LeRoy Cain and I hugged each other tearfully on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway. We had both been through so much since the terrible events of February 1, 2003.

With no new system to transition into, opportunities for contractors to stay in the space program were scarce. Layoffs began the next day. This had a far-reaching effect on the teams that developed over the thirty-year life of the Space Shuttle Program. Losing this extraordinary expertise was a casualty whose impact cannot be fully appreciated until the time comes to rebuild it. Pam Melroy said, “We accumulate wisdom. The hardware is the least of it. Someone could hack into your computer and steal all your information about the shuttle, but they wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to operate it. It’s all about the corporate knowledge that we share.”

After the mission, I told reporters, “It doesn’t matter what the change is—any major change in one’s life, you go through these four stages: denial, anger, exploration, and acceptance. We’ve all been through that now in the Shuttle Program and we’ve accepted the fact that it’s over. This is the end of the program, and people will move on and do well.” I concluded my comments with, “It’s important, but it’s not the end of the world. The sun will rise again tomorrow.” [18] Justin Ray, “NASA Space Shuttle Launch Director Joins Commercial Rocket Company,” Space.com , January 24, 2012, www.space.com/14333-shuttle-launch-director-leinbach-joins-ula.html .

As a career civil servant, I was assured of a job after the Shuttle Program ended. For several years, though, I had been toying with the idea of retiring. With no manned launches in the foreseeable future, I thought this was as good a time as any to punch out. The launch director role fit me pretty well. After a career of launching shuttles, I don’t think I could have been a budget guy behind a desk. I retired from NASA in November 2011.

NASA’s remaining shuttles retired to museums in 2012— Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex, Discovery at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, Endeavour at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and Enterprise at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York City.

As time passed following the accident and the remarkable events of the first half of 2003, people gradually returned to their daily lives. No one wanted to dwell on the horrors of the accident or the tremendous hardships that people endured in the immediate aftermath. And yet, there was a collective need to honor the sacrifices the crew made on behalf of their countries and to celebrate the incredible work accomplished by thousands of people in the aftermath.

Just a few months after the recovery effort wrapped up, the Texas communities along Columbia ’s path began thinking about how to honor the crew of Columbia and tell the story of their communities’ roles in the recovery.

Lufkin placed the commemorative plaque presented by NASA at the farewell dinner in the city’s Louis Bronaugh Park, installed a monument, and flew a Columbia flag in the park’s flag circle. Displays in the town’s Civic Center highlighted Lufkin’s key role in the recovery effort. Farther east, San Augustine placed a stone memorial to Columbia at the town’s Civic and Tourism Center. [1] National Park Service, Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial Special Resource Study , National Park Service Intermountain Region (Denver, CO: October 2014), 86.

Hemphill in particular sought to memorialize both its identity as “ground zero” for the accident and the actions of the thousands of volunteers who helped NASA search for the crew. In a very real sense, Sabine County’s citizens believe their community is hallowed ground—the place where God chose to bring Columbia ’s crew to rest.

Belinda Gay, Marsha Cooper, and Ellen Mills took the lead and devoted years to envisioning and promoting several commemorative sites for Columbia. First, the town revamped the raised circular Lone Star monument at the intersection of Highway 87 North and Farm Road 83. Its new design incorporated the STS-107 mission emblem in the center of the star and placed the motto THEIR MISSION BECAME OUR MISSION around the outer ring of the circle. The site also included stone monuments to the Columbia crew and the two searchers who perished in the helicopter accident, as well as the US and Texas flags and the Columbia banner.