The Story Behind the Space Shuttle Columbia Recovery Mission

Mike Leinbach was the launch director at NASA when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry on February 1, 2003. Joined by his Bringing Columbia Home co-author Jonathan Ward, Leinbach talk about the search and recovery effort in the wake of the tragedy. Leinbach will share his first-hand account of how NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Services and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies worked together to bring Columbia home and search for answers. This program is made possible through the generous support of Boeing.

[@Vlasko60]

Good interviewer.

[@kingedmund2]

Yes she did a good job.

[@charliepeterson2806]

Where did they find the crew and the module

[@hoghogwild]

18:52 Mr Ward states that "Hemphill Texas in Saveen County(sp?) on the border of Louisiana was the "ground zero" for where the crew came down and where alot the crew compartment and the heavier pieces of the Crew Module came down.

[@RockinToke]

Google, Charlie.

[@megaroo6110]

*Sabine County Texas

[@janettesessions]

These guys are cold. Responsible for the deaths of 7 people, they seem oddly detached and don't address the fact that the foam was knocked off at launch!!

[@ksracing8396]

Mike Leinbach was the launch director and not really involved in the decision making process about how to deal with foam strikes. This was the job of program management and engineers mainly at Marshall, responsible for the ET, over many years. Realistically, after the foam strike had happened, the chance of being able to do something successfully was very remote anyway, regardless of what is written in the CAIB report.