# Q&A: Mike Leinbach, Former Space Shuttle Launch Director & Co-Author, "Bringing Columbia Home" Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/c-span-bookshelf-6416723/q-a-mike-leinbach-former-space-shuttle-launch-director-co-author-bringing-columbia-home Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/c-span-bookshelf-6416723/q-a-mike-leinbach-former-space-shuttle-launch-director-co-author-bringing-columbia-home.md Podcast: [C-SPAN Bookshelf](https://stenobird.com/podcast/c-span-bookshelf-6416723) Published: 2026-07-20T00:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CSPAN7699919173.mp3 Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CSPAN7699919173.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/c-span-bookshelf-6416723/episodes/q-a-mike-leinbach-former-space-shuttle-launch-director-co-author-bringing-columbia-home Duration seconds: 3503 ## Resource On February 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana while re-entering Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board. Former Space Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach, who led debris recovery and reconstruction efforts following the accident, talks about the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the investigation into its causes. Mr. Leinbach is the co-author of "Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/c-span-bookshelf-6416723/episodes/q-a-mike-leinbach-former-space-shuttle-launch-director-co-author-bringing-columbia-home/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/c-span-bookshelf-6416723/q-a-mike-leinbach-former-space-shuttle-launch-director-co-author-bringing-columbia-home.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.