IMPACT Special Edition

It is 1992 and the space shuttle program is having its busiest year to date. Another mission is planned for the orbiter Columbia to operate the Spacelab module for scientific investigations. Yet this will not be a routine operation at all.
Donna Kennedy will be only the second woman to command a shuttle crew. However, not everyone feels she is ready. This troubled mission will call upon her finest qualities as she navigates the events that will create the most difficult space venture since Apollo 13!
NASA management has been warned about the repeated damage to the Thermal Protection System that must withstand temperatures above 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit during the return to Earth through the atmosphere. The disregard of these warnings is going to cost a heavy price on this occasion.
It will be up to Donna Kennedy to save her spacecraft and crew in this distressed set of events that will challenge all she knows about spaceflight, control systems, and courage.
This novel was originally published in 1995, bringing another warning to the NASA management. Sadly, no changes were made in the subsequent years. Eight years later, the nation suffered a great tragedy when we lost the Columbia and her crew.
If only they had listened!