HomeAbout 400 people have had the opportunity to fly in space over the past 45 years. Only a few are famous or household names - primarily the ones who have flown on historic missions, and the ones who died. It's regrettable that we remember the Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia crews primarily because of their deaths. In contrast most astronauts remain relatively anonymous people. In this book Philip Chien takes a passionate look at the people who flew on Columbia's last mission. Not just as astronauts - but as people. Most reporters considered STS-107 to be a “boring non-newsworthy mission.” But Philip Chien went to the effort to get to know the astronauts and their mission in detail because they were important as human beings and their mission was important even if it wasn’t as historic as some other flights.
Rick, Willie, Dave, Kalpana, Laurel, Mike, and Ilan were a varied group of people - they included military pilots, like the early astronauts, but also medical doctors and engineers.
In 1969 Neil, Mike, and I flew to the moon in a ship named "Columbia". Eleven years after our mission another ship named Columbia launched from the very same launch pad. But it was drastically different. Instead of just space for three people in a small living space the Columbia space shuttle was massive - with room to carry many more people and lots of cargo. And a varied cargo it did carry - commercial satellites, military payloads, scientific satellites, and plenty of scientific laboratories. On Columbia's 28th and last mission it was carrying one of these scientific laboratories - filled to the brim with science which could only be performed in space. Many shuttle critics have claimed that it was a “make work” mission that didn’t have to be flown. But judge for yourself after reading this book’s chapters about each of the experiments. STS-107 certainly wasn't as historic as going to the moon or building a space station, but it was important in the long run - extending our knowledge about what we can do in space and even extending the capabilities of scientific laboratories on Earth.
This book will tell you about the real people who flew on STS-107 and their mission.
Dr. Buzz Aldrin was an astronaut on the Apollo 11 moon mission and also on Gemini 12.