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

Space Telescope Science Institute, “Servicing Mission 4 Cancelled,” status report January 15, 2004, www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=11615.

NASA, “NASA Approves Mission and Names Crew for Return to Hubble,” news release 06-343, October 31, 2006.

“Investigation Could Reshape Space Agency,” Florida Today , March 3, 2003, 3A, quoted in Liston, KSC Chronology of KSC for 2003 , 52.

“Designer: Suspend Human Space Program,” Florida Today , May 16, 2003, 11A, quoted in Liston, KSC Chronology of KSC for 2003 , 109–10.

The International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement is an international treaty signed on January 29, 1998, by fifteen governments for “a long term international co-operative frame-work on the basis of genuine partnership, for the detailed design, development, operation, and utilisation of a permanently inhabited civil Space Station for peaceful purposes, in accordance with international law.”

“Return ASAP,” Aviation Week & Space Technology , September 29, 2003, 21.

Andrew Thomas, “Exploration—To the Fire of the Human Spirit: A Tribute to Fallen Astronauts and Cosmonauts,” August 4, 2005, https://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/crew/sts114_exp11_tribute.html.

FEMA’s Scott Wells and Mark Stanford of the Texas Forest Service, among many others who participated in the Columbia recovery, were also involved in responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. While lessons learned from the Columbia operation actually improved the coordination among many of the agencies during the Katrina response, leadership breakdowns in other areas is a topic best discussed elsewhere.

Warren Leary, “Cracks Found in Protective Foam on an Unused Shuttle Fuel Tank,” New York Times , November 23, 2005.

Wayne Hale, “How We Nearly Lost Discovery ,” Wayne Hale’s Blog , April 18, 2012, https://waynehale.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/how-we-nearly-lost-discovery/.

“Bird Droppings Survive Space Launch,” Washington Post , July 5, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/05/AR2006070501242.html.

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.

National Park Service, Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial Special Resource Study , National Park Service Intermountain Region (Denver, CO: October 2014), 86.

National Park Service, Columbia Memorial Resource Study , 9.

A few other pieces of Columbia debris are in display cases in administrative buildings at NASA Centers. For example, the crew hatch window is in the KSC Headquarters Building, and the OEX recorder is at JSC. These locations are not typically accessible to the general public, however. Mike Ciannilli was instrumental in obtaining approval to exhibit the hatch and hatch cover from the Apollo 1 spacecraft, which can be seen at KSC’s Apollo/Saturn V Visitors Center.

Cohrs, “Notes,” 2.

Except where otherwise noted, quotes and observations attributed to people throughout the book are taken from the authors’ interviews with those individuals. Other detailed information that is not footnoted is from Mike Leinbach’s personal notes and files.