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

Pyrotechnic devices (“pyros”)—small explosive charges for initiating dozens of critical actions on the space shuttle. Some of the functions performed by pyros included severing the bolts that held the shuttle to the launch platform at the moment the solid rocket boosters ignited, separating the external fuel tank from the orbiter, deploying the drag chute when the orbiter landed, blowing the hatch for emergency egress—even lowering the landing gear.

Rapid Response Team (RRT)—a team of about ninety engineers and technicians from Kennedy Space Center who deployed if the shuttle made a “nonroutine” landing, tasked with securing the vehicle and bringing it back to KSC.

Reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC)—also known as carbon-fiber-reinforced carbon. A composite material made up of layers of rayon cloth impregnated with a carbon resin and then baked into a hard surface. It is used for structural applications in situations subject to extremely high temperatures, such as the space shuttle’s nose and leading edge of its wings, the nose cones of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and Formula One car disc brakes. RCC is structurally strong and tough, but brittle when impacted with sufficient force.

Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF)—the concrete runway at Kennedy Space Center where the space shuttle returned at the end of its missions. At 15,000 feet in length, the SLF is one of the longest runways in the world.

Solid rocket booster (SRB)—one of two large solid-propellant motors that together provided 83 percent of the thrust in the first two minutes of the space shuttle’s flight. SRBs separated from the external tank and parachuted into the ocean, to be reused on later missions.

Soyuz—the Russian manned spacecraft used to ferry crews of up to three people to and from low Earth orbit.

Spacehab—a pressurized module carried in the shuttle’s payload bay and connected to the crew module’s air lock by a tunnel. Spacehab modules carried scientific and medical experiments the crew could operate in a shirtsleeve environment while on orbit.

Space shuttle—see Orbiter.

STS-xxx—abbreviation for “Space Transportation System.” NASA designated space shuttle missions as STS followed by a number. The numbering was sequential based on the order in which the flights were initially approved. Priority changes or equipment problems occasionally caused some missions to be moved ahead or back in the launch manifest. Columbia ’s final flight was STS-107, but it was the 113th shuttle mission to fly.

T-0 (pronounced tee zero)—the moment in the countdown when the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters ignite, explosive holddown bolts sever, and the shuttle lifts off the launchpad.

T-38—two-seat, supersonic jet aircraft used by the astronauts for training, transportation, and maintaining flying proficiency.

Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT)—the unfueled dress rehearsal for a space shuttle countdown and launch. The crew was strapped into their seats in the orbiter while the launch team supported them from the Firing Room.

Thermal protection system (TPS)—see Heatshield.

Tiles—blocks of low-density, porous silica bonded to the skin of the space shuttle to protect it from the heat of reentry. More than twenty thousand tiles—each with a unique shape—were on each space shuttle. They ranged from one to five inches in thickness depending on their location on the shuttle.

Trans-Atlantic Landing (TAL, pronounced “tal”)—one of the abort modes available to the space shuttle if an emergency situation prevented it from going into orbit. The shuttle could land at designated landing sites in West Africa and Europe, as well as several air bases along the US East Coast.

Type 1 Team—the most highly trained and qualified level of Incident Management Team, certified to work in response to complex national and state level emergency situations.

United Space Alliance (USA)—the contractor responsible for most space shuttle operations and maintenance at KSC. In the mid-2000s, about 13,000 government and contractor employees were at KSC; 8,100 of those were USA staff.

Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)—the building at KSC where space shuttles were “stacked”—raised to a vertical position and mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters in one of the four cavernous “High Bay” assembly areas before transport to the launchpad.

White Room—a small area on the launch tower from which an astronaut crew enters their spacecraft.

accident, cause of, 233, 247, 258–259

Adkins, Patrick

emotional aftershock, 240

on emotions about spacecraft, 13–14

finds pieces of Spacehab experiments, 186, 228

at Hemphill debris collection center, 114

investigates “hot” tank, 147

as KSC quality control inspector, 144–145

last day at Hemphill, 202–203

nose landing gear, 183–185

encounter with swamp gas, 178

search on horseback, 156–157

volunteers in Atlantis building, 282–283

aerial crews, searchers, 180–181

Agency Contingency Action Plan for Space Flight Operations, 47, 55–56

Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputer Site (AMOS), 32

Alabama Gulf Strike Team, 104

Alexander, Mike, 119, 131–132

Allen, Mark, 67, 109, 111, 283–284

Alliant Aviation, 163

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, 277–278

Altemus, Steve

emotional response of reconstruction team, 219–220

escorts families through hangar, 247

lessons learned, 286

manages reconstruction effort, 155–156, 206–210

Manatees tailgate party, 244

rapid organization of reconstruction effort, 206–207, 216

KSC staff visits to hangar, 249–250

selects debris for display in Preservation Office, 260

Amen, Jan, 64–65, 101, 116, 134, 201, 203–204

Anderson, Lt. Col. Michael, 10, 23–24, 237, 292–293

Angelina National Forest, 195

Angermeier, Jeff, 241

Apache (helicopter) video, Columbia disintegration, 158–159

Apache (Native American tribe), 192

Apollo, Challenger , and Columbia Lessons Learned Program, 282

Apollo 1, 256

Apollo Saturn V Visitors Center, 210

Ares I-X, 277

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 88–90, 117

Arriëns, René, 176–179, 186–187, 240, 242

Ashby, Jeff, 125

Astronaut Office, 61, 210

Astronaut beach house, 16–17

Astrovan, 20

Atlantis

final mission, 278–279

fuel system and stand down, 15

as part of shuttle fleet, 8

and rescue of Columbia crew, 267–269

retired, 279

STS-27, lands badly damaged, 29, 34

STS-125, final Hubble servicing mission, 270

test panels from wings, 246

Awtonomow, Debbie, 176, 179, 184–186

Ayish Bayou, 196

Bagian, James, 116–117

Bailey, Bill, 61

Ball, Terry, 68

Bank of America building, Lufkin command post, 172

Barksdale Air Force Base

debris collection management moved to Lufkin, 140, 172

as debris logistics and processing center, 141, 148, 153, 159, 164–166, 206–209, 216

establishing operations, 83–84

Feb. 8 memorial service, 157

as MIT strategic command center, 63, 70, 78–79, 174

RRT deployment to, 85–86, 88, 104, 151–152

temporary morgue, 90, 117

Bayou Bend Road, 143

Bean, Olen, 67, 97, 168

Beard, Marcus, 119, 168

Bell 407 helicopter, 195–198

Benzon, Robert, 88–90, 104–105

Biegert, John, 211, 214, 248

“black boxes,” 89. See also Orbiter Experiment system recorder

Blackfoot, 192

Blue Bell Company, 142

Borsi, Mark, 19, 85, 90

Boeing, 12, 30, 207, 212, 231, 249