Download or read book Bringing Columbia Home written by Michael D. Leinbach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Voted the Best Space Book of 2018 by the Space Hipsters The dramatic inside story of the epic search and recovery operation after the Columbia space shuttle disaster. On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated on reentry before the nation’s eyes, and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. Author Mike Leinbach, Launch Director of the space shuttle program at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center was a key leader in the search and recovery effort as NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Service, and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies combed an area of rural east Texas the size of Rhode Island for every piece of the shuttle and her crew they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history. This comprehensive account is told in four parts: Parallel Confusion Courage, Compassion, and Commitment Picking Up the Pieces A Bittersweet Victory For the first time, here is the definitive inside story of the Columbia disaster and recovery and the inspiring message it ultimately holds. In the aftermath of tragedy, people and communities came together to help bring home the remains of the crew and nearly 40 percent of shuttle, an effort that was instrumental in piecing together what happened so the shuttle program could return to flight and complete the International Space Station. Bringing Columbia Home shares the deeply personal stories that emerged as NASA employees looked for lost colleagues and searchers overcame immense physical, logistical, and emotional challenges and worked together to accomplish the impossible. Featuring a foreword and epilogue by astronauts Robert Crippen and Eileen Collins, and dedicated to the astronauts and recovery search persons who lost their lives, this is an incredible, compelling narrative about the best of humanity in the darkest of times and about how a failure at the pinnacle of human achievement became a story of cooperation and hope.

Download or read book Apollo Challenger Columbia written by Phillip K. Tompkins and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2005 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phillip K. Tompkins' book provides unparalleled longitudinal insight into the organizational successes and failures of NASA. In focusing on organizations in trouble, Tompkins identifies ten "communication transgressions."

Download or read book Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report written by United States. Columbia Accident Investigation Board and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Organizational Learning at NASA written by Julianne G. Mahler and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-27 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just after 9:00 a.m. on February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart and was lost over Texas. This tragic event led, as the Challenger accident had 17 years earlier, to an intensive government investigation of the technological and organizational causes of the accident. The investigation found chilling similarities between the two accidents, leading the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to conclude that NASA failed to learn from its earlier tragedy. Despite the frequency with which organizations are encouraged to adopt learning practices, organizational learning—especially in public organizations—is not well understood and deserves to be studied in more detail. This book fills that gap with a thorough examination of NASA’s loss of the two shuttles. After offering an account of the processes that constitute organizational learning, Julianne G. Mahler focuses on what NASA did to address problems revealed by Challenger and its uneven efforts to institutionalize its own findings. She also suggests factors overlooked by both accident commissions and proposes broadly applicable hypotheses about learning in public organizations.

Download or read book The Challenger Launch Decision written by Diane Vaughan and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-01-04 with total page 622 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An in-depth account of the events and personal actions which led to a great tragedy in the history of America’s space program.” —James D. Smith, former Solid Rocket Booster Chief, NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, millions of Americans became bound together in a single, historic moment. Many still vividly remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the tragedy. Diane Vaughan recreates the steps leading up to that fateful decision, contradicting conventional interpretations to prove that what occurred at NASA was not skullduggery or misconduct but a disastrous mistake. Why did NASA managers, who not only had all the information prior to the launch but also were warned against it, decide to proceed? In retelling how the decision unfolded through the eyes of the managers and the engineers, Vaughan uncovers an incremental descent into poor judgment, supported by a culture of high-risk technology. She reveals how and why NASA insiders, when repeatedly faced with evidence that something was wrong, normalized the deviance so that it became acceptable to them. In a new preface, Vaughan reveals the ramifications for this book and for her when a similar decision-making process brought down NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003. “Vaughn finds the traditional explanation of the [Challenger] accident to be profoundly unsatisfactory . . . One by one, she unravels the conclusions of the Rogers Commission.” —The New York Times “A landmark study.” —Atlantic “Vaughn gives us a rare view into the working level realities of NASA . . . The cumulative force of her argument and evidence is compelling.” —Scientific American

Download or read book Comm Check written by Michael Cabbage and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On February 1, 2003, the unthinkable happened. The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated 37 miles above Texas, seven brave astronauts were killed and America's space program, always an eyeblink from disaster, suffered its second catastrophic in-flight failure. Unlike the Challenger disaster 17 years earlier, Columbia's destruction left the nation one failure away from the potential abandonment of human space exploration. Media coverage in the immediate aftermath focused on the possible cause of the disaster, and on the nation's grief. But the full human story, and the shocking details of NASA's crucial mistakes, have never been told -- until now. Based on dozens of exclusive interviews, never-before-published documents and recordings of key meetings obtained by the authors, Comm Check takes the reader inside the conference rooms and offices where NASA's best and brightest managed the nation's multi-billion-dollar shuttle program -- and where they failed to recognize the signs of an impending disaster. It is the story of a space program pushed to the brink of failure by relentless political pressure, shrinking budgets and flawed decision making. The independent investigation into the disaster uncovered why Columbia broke apart in the sky above Texas. Comm Check brings that story to life with the human drama behind the tragedy. Michael Cabbage and William Harwood, two of America's most respected space journalists, are veterans of all but a handful of NASA's 113 shuttle missions. Tapping a network of sources and bringing a combined three decades of experience to bear, the authors provide a rare glimpse into NASA's inner circles, chronicling the agency's most devastating failure and the challenges that face NASA as it struggles to return America to space.

Download or read book Challenger and Columbia written by Kathleen Fahey and published by Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP. This book was released on 2004-12-15 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looks at the events surrounding the explosions of the Challenger in 1986, and the Columbia in 2003, discussing the investigations and the causes of the disasters.

Download or read book Truth Lies and O Rings written by Allan J. McDonald and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2012-03-11 with total page 1075 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a cold January morning in 1986, NASA launched the Space Shuttle Challenger, despite warnings against doing so by many individuals, including Allan McDonald. The fiery destruction of Challenger on live television moments after launch remains an indelible image in the nation’s collective memory. In Truth, Lies, and O-Rings, McDonald, a skilled engineer and executive, relives the tragedy from where he stood at Launch Control Center. As he fought to draw attention to the real reasons behind the disaster, he was the only one targeted for retribution by both NASA and his employer, Morton Thiokol, Inc., makers of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters. In this whistle-blowing yet rigorous and fair-minded book, McDonald, with the assistance of internationally distinguished aerospace historian James R. Hansen, addresses all of the factors that led to the accident, some of which were never included in NASA's Failure Team report submitted to the Presidential Commission. Truth, Lies, and O-Rings is the first look at the Challenger tragedy and its aftermath from someone who was on the inside, recognized the potential disaster, and tried to prevent it. It also addresses the early warnings of very severe debris issues from the first two post-Challenger flights, which ultimately resulted in the loss of Columbia some fifteen years later.

Download or read book Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident written by DIANE Publishing Company and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1995-07 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Space Shuttle Challenger written by Ben Evans and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-07-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book details the stories of Challenger’s missions from the points of view of the astronauts, engineers, and scientists who flew and knew her and the managers, technicians, and ground personnel who designed her and nursed her from humble beginnings as a structural test article into one of the most capable Shuttles in NASA’s service. Challenger veterans, including Gordon Fullerton and Vance Brand, describe their experiences and the differences between Challenger and her sister ships. The development of Challenger herself is explored in detail, including her design, development, construction, and preparation for missions.

Download or read book Columbia Space Shuttle Explosion and Space Exploration written by Tamra B. Orr and published by Cherry Lake. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book relays the factual details of the Columbia space shuttle explosion through three different perspectives. The narrative provides multiple accounts of the event, and readers learn details through the point of view of a WRDY news reporter, potential future astronaut, and a family. The text offers opportunities to compare and contrast various perspectives while gathering and analyzing information about a modern event. Content focuses on point-of-view and encourages readers to understand how background and experience can lead to differing views.

Download or read book Space Shuttle Columbia written by Ben Evans and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-09-23 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On February 1st 2003, one of the worst and most public disasters ever witnessed in the human space programme unfolded with horrifying suddenness in the skies above north central Texas. The Space Shuttle Columbia – the world’s first truly reusable manned spacecraft – was lost during her return to Earth, along with a crew of seven. It was an event that, after the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger during a launch 17 years before, the world had hoped it would never see again. This book details each of Columbia’s 28 missions in turn, as told by scientists and researchers who developed and supported her many payloads, by the engineers who worked on her and by the astronauts who flew her. In doing so, it is intended to provide a fitting tribute to this most remarkable flying machine and those who perished on her last mission.

Download or read book The Burning Blue written by Kevin Cook and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of a national trauma—NASA’s Challenger explosion—and what really happened to America’s Teacher in Space, illuminating the tragic cost of humanity setting its sight on the stars You’ve seen the pictures. You know what happened. Or do you? On January 28, 1986, NASA’s space shuttle Challenger exploded after blasting off from Cape Canaveral. Christa McAuliffe, America’s “Teacher in Space,” was instantly killed, along with the other six members of the mission. At least that's what most of us remember. Kevin Cook tells us what really happened on that ill-fated, unforgettable day. He traces the pressures—leading from NASA to the White House—that triggered the fatal order to launch on an ice-cold Florida morning. Cook takes readers inside the shuttle for the agonizing minutes after the explosion, which the astronauts did indeed survive. He uncovers the errors and corner-cutting that led an overconfident space agency to launch a crew that had no chance to escape. But this is more than a corrective to a now-dimming memory. Centering on McAuliffe, a charmingly down-to-earth civilian on the cusp of history, The Burning Blue animates a colorful cast of characters: a pair of red-hot flyers at the shuttle's controls, the second female and first Jewish astronaut, the second Black astronaut, and the first Asian American and Buddhist in space. Drawing vivid portraits of Christa and the astronauts, Cook makes readers forget the fate they're hurtling toward. With drama, immediacy, and shocking surprises, he reveals the human price the Challenger crew and America paid for politics, capital-P Progress, and the national dream of "reaching for the stars."

Download or read book DEVM SPACE SHUTTLE written by Heppenheimer Ta and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 2002-05-17 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report written by Nasa and published by PDQ Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NASA commissioned the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) to conduct a thorough review of both the technical and the organizational causes of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew on February 1, 2003. The accident investigation that followed determined that a large piece of insulating foam from Columbia's external tank (ET) had come off during ascent and struck the leading edge of the left wing, causing critical damage. The damage was undetected during the mission. The Columbia accident was not survivable. After the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) investigation regarding the cause of the accident was completed, further consideration produced the question of whether there were lessons to be learned about how to improve crew survival in the future. This investigation was performed with the belief that a comprehensive, respectful investigation could provide knowledge that can protect future crews in the worldwide community of human space flight. Additionally, in the course of the investigation, several areas of research were identified that could improve our understanding of both nominal space flight and future spacecraft accidents. This report is the first comprehensive, publicly available accident investigation report addressing crew survival for a human spacecraft mishap, and it provides key information for future crew survival investigations. The results of this investigation are intended to add meaning to the sacrifice of the crew's lives by making space flight safer for all future generations.

Download or read book The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Profiles the origins of the mission and what went wrong *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents In the decades after the Apollo program, American space shuttles flew over 130 missions and successfully completed over 98% of them, but unfortunately, the two most famous missions were the ones that ended tragically aboard the Challenger and Columbia. The Space Shuttle Challenger was the most heavily used space shuttle in the three years it was operational, carrying the first minority astronaut and woman astronaut into space. Challenger was also the first space shuttle to complete a landing at night. On the morning of January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched for the 10th time, beginning mission STS-51-L. Space shuttles had already successfully completed 24 missions, and no American spacecraft had ever failed to reach orbit during an official mission. On this mission, the Challenger was carrying a satellite for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites system, which was to be deployed in orbit. The crew included Ronald McNair, who had already been the second African-American in space, and Ellison Onizuka, who had already been the first Asian-American astronaut in space. But the highlight of the mission was to be the "NASA Teacher in Space Project," in which a civilian teacher would give teaching lessons to his or her class while onboard the space shuttle. The winner of the competition was Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher in Concord, New Hampshire, who wrote a winning essay and had to undergo a year of astronaut training before that fateful day. It was a beautiful morning, and many spectators came to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch, including McAuliffe's parents and her students. Several news networks were carrying live broadcasts of the launch, including live shots of McAuliffe's parents as they watched the Challenger liftoff. Mission Control's transmissions to the Challenger were being blared over loudspeakers to give spectators a play-by-play of the shuttle's ascent. Ascent seemed to be going normally during the first minute, but about 75 seconds into the ascent, a plastic O-ring used to seal a joint in one of the solid rocket boosters failed, causing a breach of hot gas. That gas spread to the other rocket booster and the external fuel tank, causing an explosion. When the spectators saw the explosion, many of them started cheering, unaware of what was really happening. But Mission Control quickly announced that there had been some sort of problem, and the crowd became confused and then panicky as the space shuttle, fuel tank and rocket boosters all broke apart and flew in opposite directions. Some cameras fixed on the falling debris as it fell to the ocean, while others stayed focused on McAuliffe's parents. The entire crew was killed in the explosion, and investigations concluded that they may have survived until crashing into the ocean. After the Challenger disaster, the space shuttles were grounded for about two years, and a commission issued findings that would be used in an effort to prevent similar tragedies. The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: The History and Legacy of NASA's Most Notorious Tragedy chronicles the disaster from the origins of its mission to what went so terribly wrong. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Challenger like never before.

Download or read book The Ordinary Spaceman written by Clayton C. Anderson and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A memoir chronicling Clayton Anderson's quest to become an astronaut. From his childhood to working for NASA, and then eventually becoming an astronaut"--