Rating: 
Summary: SpaceFan
Review: "Comm Check" does an excellent job of telling the Columbia accident by pulling from many sources. The story covers from the initial idea to send an Israeli into orbit to Congress cutting NASA's 2004 budget shortly after the accident report was released. The authors save their opinions on the space program and its future for the ten-page epilogue.
Rating:
Summary: Well written fact-based book
Review: "Comm Check" does an excellent job of telling the Columbia accident by pulling from many sources. The story covers from the initial idea to send an Israeli into orbit to Congress cutting NASA's 2004 budget shortly after the accident report was released. The authors save their opinions on the space program and its future for the ten-page epilogue.
Rating: 
Summary: "No, not again! It can't be!"
Review: A great first telling of the Columbia disaster. The authors interviewed a score of persons involved at some point with the shuttle program, and seemingly spared no one's feelings, regardless of the access they were given. We share the sinking dread of the junior engineers as they watch the foam strike, and are then denied photos of the orbiter by senior management from military surveillance vehicles. And then comes the awful moment, to observers across the country, in Houston, and at NASA, when disaster strikes...The final report of the investigative board saw little hope for NASA to effectively manage the shuttle program at the levels of quality control that the program required. So the macro problem was not a case of sub-par people doing sub-par work, but of normal people doing normal work. For the most complex machine ever invented, normal wasn't good enough. Bureaucratic inertia would build up over time, trumping any system of feedback and cross-checks. People in any organization eventually come to see what they expect to see, swamping the efforts of those individuals who strive to "pound a problem flat." Ultimately of course, if everyone is to blame then no one is to blame. Every snowflake in an avalanche can plead "not guilty". That, plus the creeping obsolescence of the shuttle design and components led the investigative board to recommend replacing the shuttle altogether. Does this mean the end of manned space flight from America? I personally hope so. We've learned so much more from projects like Voyager, Hubble, Chandra, and the like than from using the shuttle to put some elementary school's bean sprout dixie cup gardens into orbit. But I suspect that the general public will not support the space program unless they have live astronauts to cheer for. So, who knows what will come next. For now, this book is a thorough, and thought-provoking account of what everyone hopes will be the final shuttle disaster.
Rating:
Summary: "No, not again! It can't be!"
Review: A great first telling of the Columbia disaster. The authors interviewed a score of persons involved at some point with the shuttle program, and seemingly spared no one's feelings, regardless of the access they were given. We share the sinking dread of the junior engineers as they watch the foam strike, and are then denied photos of the orbiter by senior management from military surveillance vehicles. And then comes the awful moment, to observers across the country, in Houston, and at NASA, when disaster strikes... The final report of the investigative board saw little hope for NASA to effectively manage the shuttle program at the levels of quality control that the program required. So the macro problem was not a case of sub-par people doing sub-par work, but of normal people doing normal work. For the most complex machine ever invented, normal wasn't good enough. Bureaucratic inertia would build up over time, trumping any system of feedback and cross-checks. People in any organization eventually come to see what they expect to see, swamping the efforts of those individuals who strive to "pound a problem flat." Ultimately of course, if everyone is to blame then no one is to blame. Every snowflake in an avalanche can plead "not guilty". That, plus the creeping obsolescence of the shuttle design and components led the investigative board to recommend replacing the shuttle altogether. Does this mean the end of manned space flight from America? I personally hope so. We've learned so much more from projects like Voyager, Hubble, Chandra, and the like than from using the shuttle to put some elementary school's bean sprout dixie cup gardens into orbit. But I suspect that the general public will not support the space program unless they have live astronauts to cheer for. So, who knows what will come next. For now, this book is a thorough, and thought-provoking account of what everyone hopes will be the final shuttle disaster.
Rating:
Summary: This book exceeded my expectations
Review: I followed the Columbia accident very closely so I wasn't sure this book would have anything new for me, but I was surprised by its depth. The authors are veteran space journalists and were able to get interviews that no one else did. The retelling of how the critical information about the foam strike never got anywhere past a few bobbled opportunities to discuss how dangerous these foam strikes could be is fascinating. Many, many wrong turns were taken by people who thought the worst wouldn't happen, at least not during their hectic workday. A great book and the only book about the Columbia accident worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not a bad account, but not much new for us space junkies
Review: I found the book to be interesting. There was very little new material, however, especially for those of us who followed the mission investigation through the Internet. The book does serve as a good reference to anyone who wants very detailed information about the Columbia breakup. I found the NASA infighting about the request for in-flight pictures of the potential damage areas to be typical of any sizeable company - and a classic example of the problems within NASA that contributed to the accident. Other interesting areas were the details of the debris recovery and the stored tape data about the final few minutes of the flight and how the spacecraft actually disintegrated.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent inside perspective
Review: I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this book. Michael Cabbage and William Harwood were in a unique position to report the human aspect of the Columbia tragedy. Both have spent many years covering the space program for a wide variety of news services. Mr Harwoods CBS web pages and emails kept me informed throughout the months after the unfortunate events.
Their book provides a very interesting view into the details of the lives that were affected, mine included.
They obviously drew on many years of experience, contacts with NASA and news organizations, and a lot of old fashion hard work in researching the events and stories from all across the country and the world. Portions of the book were emotionally hard for me to read, but I treasured the insights into the astronauts lives and those of their families and loved ones. This is a great book that pulls together all the details of the accident and the lives of those who witnessed the bitter tragedy. My deepest sympathy to the families, loved ones and friends of the crew.
Rating:
Summary: Very enlightening
Review: I have no reservations in recommending this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the Columbia disaster. This book isn't "technical," in the sense of giving lots of equations etc. Rather it gives a thorough non-technical, managerial, and cultural description of events. All of this book's sections are well written, and fit into a cohesive whole. There's the required section describing how things unfolded on that awful morning. The authors also describe the doomed members of Columbia's crew, and the unusually long period of training and delays they had to go through to get to space in the first place. This gives a glimpse into the space station and shuttle politics within NASA, and also gives a real human touch to the tragedy. Esp. with details such as Rick Husband's decision to make Kalpana Chawla the flight engineer, helping her to redeem her career as an astronaut after an earlier mistake. There's background from previous flights to set the stage, esp. the near-catastrophic foam strike on Atlantis, 2 flights before Columbia. This section shows NASA's inadequate response on a past flight, which then leads into the description of the debris assessment team's work during Columbia's mission. I found this section particularly enlightening, and I could relate very much to it, working in a large organization myself. All too understandable, and thus even more frustrating. The work of the CAIB is described more in broad-brush strokes, since it took place over a much longer period. But its points are well taken. NASA's organization repeated the mistakes of Challenger, despite some very good work on some other safety concerns with the shuttle. The author's give a blow-by-blow account of how Columbia came apart in this section, which is gripping reading. Overall, I enjoyed this book a great deal, esp. the sections on the work of the debris assessment team, and the account of how Columbia came apart. The authors' epilogue on the need for a vision at NASA is also well taken. Thoroughly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Very enlightening
Review: I have no reservations in recommending this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the Columbia disaster. This book isn't "technical," in the sense of giving lots of equations etc. Rather it gives a thorough non-technical, managerial, and cultural description of events. All of this book's sections are well written, and fit into a cohesive whole. There's the required section describing how things unfolded on that awful morning. The authors also describe the doomed members of Columbia's crew, and the unusually long period of training and delays they had to go through to get to space in the first place. This gives a glimpse into the space station and shuttle politics within NASA, and also gives a real human touch to the tragedy. Esp. with details such as Rick Husband's decision to make Kalpana Chawla the flight engineer, helping her to redeem her career as an astronaut after an earlier mistake. There's background from previous flights to set the stage, esp. the near-catastrophic foam strike on Atlantis, 2 flights before Columbia. This section shows NASA's inadequate response on a past flight, which then leads into the description of the debris assessment team's work during Columbia's mission. I found this section particularly enlightening, and I could relate very much to it, working in a large organization myself. All too understandable, and thus even more frustrating. The work of the CAIB is described more in broad-brush strokes, since it took place over a much longer period. But its points are well taken. NASA's organization repeated the mistakes of Challenger, despite some very good work on some other safety concerns with the shuttle. The author's give a blow-by-blow account of how Columbia came apart in this section, which is gripping reading. Overall, I enjoyed this book a great deal, esp. the sections on the work of the debris assessment team, and the account of how Columbia came apart. The authors' epilogue on the need for a vision at NASA is also well taken. Thoroughly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: SpaceFan
Review: I just finished reading Comm Check and while I found little new beyond the news reports, I thought it was an excellent narrative about the Columbia accident. I admit I was skeptical about a book written by news reporters because they have a tendency to sensationalize things to the point that it is no longer factually accurate. However this was not the case with Cabbage and Harwood, a pleasant surprise. I would highly recommend this book.
| 
