“Jonathan did a great job on Leinbach’s and Collins’ books. Unlike many co-authors, he didn’t let ego get in the way and instead, let their voices speak. He’s a wonderful storyteller and helped two great people tell theirs.” — CBS News Correspondent Peter King
“Original, in-depth, and compelling stories of the unsung heroes who made American manned spaceflight possible.”
That’s what critics say about Jonathan’s books.
Not being an engineer himself, Jonathan enjoys explaining technical topics in ways that enable non-technical readers to visualize and understand what was going on. Jonathan always strives to bring the human element into the discussion, too—what it felt like to work at the top of a 500-ft. tall launch gantry as it swayed in the wind, or the feeling of exhausted elation felt by searchers when the remains of the last of Columbia‘s crew members were found after two grueling weeks of scouring the forests of East Texas.
The result is a respectful and compassionate treatment of the thousands of men and women who pursued a lofty vision, and who went above and beyond the call to accomplish amazing achievements in the service of their country.
Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission was published by Arcade in 2021, the long-awaited memoir of a trailblazer and role model who is telling her story for the first time. Eileen Collins was an aviation pioneer her entire career, from her crowning achievements as the first woman to command an American space mission as well as the first to pilot the space shuttle to her early years as one of the Air Force’s first female pilots.
“What a read!” — Tom Hanks
Collins was in the first class of women to earn pilot’s wings at Vance Air Force Base and was their first female instructor pilot. She was only the second woman admitted to the Air Force’s elite Test Pilot Program at Edwards Air Force Base. NASA had such confidence in her skills as a leader and pilot that she was entrusted to command the first shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster, returning the US to spaceflight after a two-year hiatus. Since retiring from the Air Force and NASA, she has served on numerous corporate boards and is an inspirational speaker about space exploration and leadership.
Eileen Collins is among the most recognized and admired women in the world, yet this is the first time she has told her story in a book. It is a story not only of achievement and overcoming obstacles but of profound personal transformation. The shy, quiet child of an alcoholic father and struggling single mother, who grew up in modest circumstances and was an unremarkable student, she had few prospects when she graduated from high school, but she changed her life to pursue her secret dream of becoming an astronaut. She shares her leadership and life lessons throughout the book with the aim of inspiring and passing on her legacy to a new generation.
Bringing Columbia Home: The Final Mission of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew is an Arcade Publishing book, released to resounding critical acclaim in January 2018. The book is co-authored by Mike Leinbach, who was the launch director of the space shuttle program when Columbia disintegrated on reentry before a nation’s eyes on February 1, 2003. And it would be Mike Leinbach who would be a key leader in the search and recovery effort as NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Service, and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies combed an area of rural east Texas the size of Rhode Island for every piece of the shuttle and her crew they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history.
For the first time, here is the definitive inside story of the Columbia disaster and recovery and the inspiring message it ultimately holds. In the aftermath of tragedy, people and communities came together to help bring home the remains of the crew and nearly 40 percent of shuttle, an effort that was instrumental in piecing together what happened so the shuttle program could return to flight and complete the International Space Station. Bringing Columbia Home shares the deeply personal stories that emerged as NASA employees looked for lost colleagues and searchers overcame immense physical, logistical, and emotional challenges and worked together to accomplish the impossible.
Featuring a foreword and epilogue by astronauts Robert Crippen and Eileen Collins, this is an incredible narrative about best of humanity in the darkest of times and about how a failure at the pinnacle of human achievement became a story of cooperation and hope
Read: Advance praise for Bringing Columbia Home.
Rocket Ranch: The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center (Springer-Praxis Books, 2015)
The era of the Apollo/Saturn missions was perhaps the most exciting period in American space exploration history. Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center were buzzing with activity. Thousands of workers came to town to build the facilities and launch the missions needed to put an American on the Moon before the end of the decade.
Work at KSC involved much more than just launching rockets. It was a place like none other on Earth. Technicians performed intricate operations, and hazards abounded everywhere, including lightning, fire, highly-toxic fuels, snakes, heat, explosives, LOX spills, and even plutonium. The reward for months of 7-day workweeks under intense pressure was witnessing a Saturn V at liftoff.
Rocket Ranch takes the reader deep into the facilities at KSC. Descriptions of early operations include a harrowing account of the heroic efforts of pad workers during the Apollo 1 fire. A companion to the author’s book Countdown to a Moon Launch: Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey, this describes NASA’s first computer systems used for spacecraft and rocket checkout and explains how tests and launches proceeded. Hundreds of illustrations complement the firsthand accounts of more than 70 Apollo program managers and engineers.
For anyone who ever wished they had worked at Kennedy Space Center during the Apollo era, this book is the next best thing. The only thing missing is the smell of rocket fuel in the morning.
Countdown to a Moon Launch: Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey (Springer-Praxis Books, 2015)
Thousands of workers labored at Kennedy Space Center around the clock, seven days a week, for half a year to prepare for the liftoff of Apollo 11. This is the story of what went on during those hectic six months.
Countdown to a Moon Launch provides an in-depth look at the carefully choreographed workflow for an Apollo mission at KSC. Using the Apollo 11 mission as an example, readers will learn what went on day by day to transform partially completed stages and crates of parts into a ready-to-fly Saturn V. Firsthand accounts of launch pad accidents, near misses, suspected sabotage, and last-minute changes to hardware are told by more than 70 NASA employees and its contractors. A companion to Rocket Ranch, it includes many diagrams and photographs, some never before published, to illustrate all aspects of the process. NASA’s groundbreaking use of computers for testing and advanced management techniques are also covered in detail.
This book will demystify the question of how NASA could build and launch Apollo missions using 1960s technology. You’ll discover that there was no magic involved – just an abundance of discipline, willpower, and creativity.
“You can add another title to the list of truly authoritative histories of the space age and lunar landing program: Countdown to a Moon Launch. This lovingly-written book belongs on the shelf of any Apollo aficianado.” – Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly