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

Starr, Finding Heroes , 69–72.

Crookshanks and Benzon, “CAIB Lessons Learned Video Interview.”

Wetherbee noted in an email to Jonathan Ward that in the crew search operations, each error was corrected expeditiously based on the extensive experience and professionalism of FBI special agent Mike Sutton. Using Sutton’s detailed and extensive system for logging the reported data, the crew remains leadership team in the Lufkin command center was able to rectify all errors.

ESRI, “Recovery Enhanced with GIS.” The GIS and the EPA databases tracked different information. FEMA’s new Shuttle Interagency Debris Database (SIDD) tracked all reports. EPA was only tracking the items that had actually been recovered. FEMA and EPA resolved the situation by agreeing that reports would first be entered into SIDD. Once it was clear that the report was for a new item rather than for one that had already been entered, the information would be sent to EPA’s database. After EPA had investigated the sighting and collected an item, the information then went back to SIDD. The incident commanders could therefore use the data in SIDD to target search operations.

Interviews with Dave Whittle, Ed Mango, Jim Wetherbee; ESRI, “Recovery Enhanced with GIS”; NASA Accident Investigation Team Final Report , 60.

Greg Cohrs email to Jonathan Ward. Cohrs noted that one day later in the search, a military ordnance disposal team “cleared” one item in the field as nonexplosive, which the search team interpreted as meaning “safe.” Cohrs said, “It was actually high-pressure, and we were at risk moving it by hand and vehicle to the collection center, as was pointed out when I delivered it. It was later depressurized on a shooting range. We made our personnel aware of that type of hazard.”

FEMA, “Substantial New Resources Committed to Expedite Search and Collection Effort for Columbia Material,” news release HQ-03-036, February 5, 2003; FEMA, “Columbia Material Collection Guidelines: Fact Sheet,” news release HQ-03-036a, February 5, 2003. Shuttle radios used classified, military-grade communications security technology to prevent unauthorized access.

FEMA, “Seven West Texas Counties Alerted of Possible Scattered Shuttle Material,” news release 3171-12, February 6, 2003.

Five Texas residents were charged with stealing debris from the shuttle. None ever served time for the thefts. Jeffrey Gettleman, “Loss of the Shuttle: Recovery Efforts; U.S. Charges 2 in Shuttle Debris Theft, Citing Need to ‘Make an Example,’” New York Times , February 6, 2003; Matt Lait, “2 Texans Charged With Stealing Wreckage,” Los Angeles Times , February 6, 2003, articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/06/nation/na-debris6; Jennifer Vose, “Punishments Vary for Debris Thieves,” Daily Sentinel (Nacogdoches, TX), August 2, 2003; “Officer Cleared in Shuttle Debris Theft,” Chicago Tribune , June 8, 2003, articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-06-08/news/0306080104_1_debris-stealing-shuttle; NASA Office of Inspector General press release, June 25, 2003.

Shafer and LeConey, “Legal Issues,” 64.

ESRI, “Recovery Enhanced with GIS.”

NASA’s Lamar Russell took on the task of supporting the searches in the western states. He published a diary of his experiences: The Silence and the Salvage (Mustang, OK: Tate Publishing, 2013).

Cohrs, “Notes,” 8.

Shafer and LeConey, “Legal Issues,” 60.

Cohrs, “Notes,” 8.

Gettleman, “Shuttle Debris Theft.”

Cohrs, “Notes,” 9.

NASA, “New Space Shuttle Columbia Images Released,” news release 03-212, June 24, 2003. Searchers eventually recovered nearly ten hours of video and ninety-two photographs with in-cabin, Earth observation, and experiment-related imagery. Of the 337 videotapes aboard Columbia , twenty-eight were found with some recoverable footage. Only twenty-one rolls of film out of the 137 rolls of film aboard the ship were found with recoverable photographs.

Robert Crippen, remarks at the KSC Columbia Memorial Service, February 7, 2003, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubYGeGU8jOo.

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

Pat Oden email, February 8, 2003.

Interview with Larry Ostarly.

Interview with Scott Thurston.

“NASA Studies Possibility of Space Junk Role,” Florida Today , February 6, 2003, 2S.

Mike Leinbach believes that perhaps the foam strike on the wing displaced an RCC panel on Columbia ’s wing by compromising its support structure and pushing it back into the cavity behind the leading edge. From there, it could have eventually broken off due to thermal expansion and contraction as the shuttle moved back and forth between orbital day and night. He personally still finds this theory more plausible than the idea that the foam actually punched a hole through an RCC panel.

“NASA: Search for Crucial Pieces Coming Up Short,” Florida Today , February 6, 2003, 4S.

FEMA, “FEMA Updates Search, Find, and Secure Activities for Columbia Investigation,” news release 3171-14, February 8, 2003.

Shafer and LeConey. “Legal Issues,” 58–9. Phone calls and digital pictures emailed to the MIT closed most of these reports, as technicians were able to see that the material was clearly not related to the shuttle.

US Navy, Salvage Report , 1–8.

FEMA, “No Injuries Confirmed Because of Fallen Shuttle Materials; Citizens Urged to Avoid Contact With Unfamiliar Objects,” news release 3171-15, February 8, 2003.

Interview with Ed Mango.

FEMA, “FEMA Responds to Offers of Donated Goods and Services for Columbia Emergency,” news release 3171-16, February 9, 2003.

Interviews with Gerry Schumann, Don Eddings, Marsha Cooper.

Jeff Williams, interviewed by Connie Hodges.

Greg Cohrs added in an email to Jonathan Ward, “Shortly after the disaster, heavy rains repeatedly occurred, flooding the Attoyac River and Ayish Bayou, and all of the associated tributaries and watershed of Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend Reservoirs. This flooding undoubtedly washed some debris away and covered other debris with water, probably hiding the items for a long time, if not forever.”

US Navy, Salvage Report , 3–2.

US Navy, Salvage Report , 1–8.

William Harwood, “NASA Works to Eliminate Failure Scenarios,” story written for CBS News Space Place , reprinted in Spaceflight Now , March 9, 2003, www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030308scenarios/.