
20 Jun Why I wrote Return to Flight
Why did I write the book? There are only a few books about the Space Shuttle Program and its thirty years of operation. The Columbia accident was a major disaster, from which it took a monumental effort to recover. Despite the numerous debris challenges for each Return to Flight mission, intense pressure, and criticism from both inside and outside the agency, the team remained focused and steadfast in their efforts to work the issues and solve the problems. Return to Flight is a wonderful and exciting story about the intensity associated with manned spaceflight and the technical challenges with flying the Shuttle. Only three nations have a manned space program and only NASA flew a Space Shuttle and, hence, Return to Flight is a story like no other.
