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

Jan Amen email, February 4, 2003.

Stepaniak, Loss of Signal , 21.

Greg Cohrs email to Jonathan Ward.

Stepaniak, Loss of Signal , 25–7.

Stepaniak, Loss of Signal , 25–7.

Cohrs, “Notes,” 6.

Starr, Finding Heroes , 81–8.

Interview with Marsha Cooper. Several years after the accident, the sister of one of Columbia ’s crewmen came to Sabine County to visit the location where her brother had been recovered. Marsha Cooper was her escort and host. As they sat outside and talked the evening she arrived, the astronaut’s sister told stories about her brother’s childhood. She said that he used to enjoy fishing with their father, who would often remark about seeing a reflection of a white dog in the water. Cooper said she was stunned. This astronaut’s remains were found near the water. His was the recovery at which the white dog had followed the sheriff and the rest of the group into the woods to the site. Cooper told the astronaut’s sister about the incident, and they both broke into tears.

Interviews with Billy Ted Smith and Mark Allen; Sabine County incident management team press briefing on February 3, 2003, edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/03/ip.00.html.

Starr, Finding Heroes , 90.

Cohrs, “Notes,” 6; interviews with Billy Ted Smith and Mark Allen.

Starr, Finding Heroes , 116.

Stepaniak, Loss of Signal , 23.

Starr, Finding Heroes , 91.

FEMA, “FEMA Updates Search, Find And Secure Activities For Columbia Emergency [4:00 p.m. Release],” news release HQ-03-035, February 4, 2003.

Cohrs, “Notes,” 6.

Pete Churlon, “Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy Photo Gallery,” Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, TX), January 28, 2011, www.beaumontenterprise.com/photos/article/photo-548688; Pat Oden emails reprinted on www.hemphilltexas.com.

NASA, “Johnson Space Center Memorial Time Updated,” news release H03-042, February 3, 2003.

NASA, “NASA Provides Update About Columbia Investigation,” news release H03-051, February 4, 2003.

NASA, “Columbia Investigation.”

NASA, “Space Shuttle Accident Investigation Board Chair Tours Recovery Area,” news release H03-047, February 4, 2003.

Jan Amen email, February 4, 2003.

Interview with Jim Wetherbee; Stepaniak, Loss of Signal , 78.

Loss of Signal , 28–9.

FEMA, “FEMA Updates Search, Find And Secure Activities For Columbia Emergency [4:00 p.m. Release],” news release 3171-09, February 6, 2003.

James Hull email, February 7, 2003.

FEMA news release 3171-09.

“Today, Deputy NASA Administrator Frederick Gregory will render honors to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The remains of the orbiter’s seven astronauts are scheduled to arrive in flag-draped caskets at Dover about 2 p.m. EST on board a C-141 Starlifter…. The Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at the base will prepare the remains for return to the families. Ramon’s remains will be flown to his home in Israel for burial,” (NASA, “Deputy Administrator Meets Space Shuttle Columbia Astronauts’ Remains at Dover AFB,” news release H03-053, February 5, 2003, emphasis added).

Cohrs, “Notes,” 8.

Starr, Finding Heroes , 182.

Interviews with Jerry Ross and Jim Wetherbee; ESRI, “Space Shuttle Columbia Debris Recovery Enhanced with GIS,” Summer 2003, www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer03articles/space-shuttle.html.

FEMA, “FEMA Updates Search, Find and Secure Activities for Columbia Investigation,” news release 3171-13, February 7, 2003.

Cohrs, “Notes,” 9.

“In Honor of the Columbia Shuttle Astronauts,” Lufkin, TX, First Baptist Church, February 8, 2003.

Pat Oden email, February 8, 2003.

This motto appears on a commemorative T-shirt that Belinda Gay was wearing in a photograph dated February 10, 2003.

Interviews with Greg Cohrs, Terry Lane, Tom Maddox.

Stepaniak, Loss of Signal , 28.

Cohrs, “Notes,” 13.

FEMA, “FEMA Establishes Joint Information Center For Columbia Debris Search, Find, And Secure Mission At Lufkin Civic Center,” news release HQ-03-031, February 3, 2003.

FEMA, “FEMA Continues to Coordinate Actions to Assist State and Local Authorities in Search, Find and Secure Mission for Columbia Debris,” news release HQ-03-030, February 3, 2003.

FEMA, “FEMA Updates Search, Find and Secure Activities for Columbia Emergency [4:00 p.m. Release],” news release HQ-03-032, February 3, 2003.

US Navy, Salvage Report , 1–7.

Interviews with Dave Whittle and Larry Ostarly; Jim Wetherbee email to Jonathan Ward.

Pete Churlon, “Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy Photo Gallery,” Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, TX), January 28, 2011, www.beaumontenterprise.com/photos/article/photo-548675.

Starr, Finding Heroes , 69–72.

Pat Adkins email to Jonathan Ward.

Pat Adkins email to Jonathan Ward. Jerry Ross said that he had advocated for having all crew personal effects sent directly to the Astronaut Office in Houston. However, instructions were that everything recovered would be processed through the reconstruction hangar at Kennedy first, and then crew items would be sent to Houston.

FEMA, “FEMA Updates Search, Find and Secure Activities for Columbia Emergency [11:00 a.m. Release],” news release HQ-03-034, February 4, 2003.

FEMA, “FEMA Updates Search, Find and Secure Activities for Columbia Emergency [4:00 p.m. Release],” news release HQ-03-035, February 4, 2003.

FEMA news release HQ-03-034.

Shafer and LeConey, “Legal Issues,” 61.

FEMA news release HQ-03-035.

Ener later achieved notoriety for entertaining NASA workers with his intricately fabricated tall tales of “one-armed space monkeys” that had escaped from Columbia and were sighted running loose in the woods of Sabine County. At one point, Ener even took out an ad in the local paper seeking to purchase monkey traps.