Mike Leinbach Will Take A Position With A 'Major Aerospace
Company'
The man who was tapped by NASA to lead the shuttle program after
the Columbia accident has announced he will be leaving the agency
to accept a position with a "major aerospace company." The move
will allow Mike Leinbach to stay on Florida's Space Coast where he
and his wife have deep roots.
According to his NASA bio, Leinbach joined NASA in 1984 as a
structural engineer in the Design Engineering Directorate. He
served as a lead design engineer for a variety of launch pad
systems including the Orbiter Weather Protection and Emergency
Egress Slide Wire systems. In 1988, he became a NASA Test Director
(NTD) in the Shuttle Management and Operations Directorate
(presently, Shuttle Processing Directorate). As an NTD, Leinbach
was responsible for directing all daily operations at Launch
Complex 39. Concurrently, he was chairman of the Emergency Egress
and Rescue Working Group. In 1991, he was named Shuttle Test
Director, conducting the terminal countdown and launch of 17
Shuttle missions and was responsible for all prelaunch planning
activities involving the Shuttle launch countdown.
From January 1998 to May 2000, Leinbach served as the deputy
director of the Space Station Hardware Integration Office, where he
was responsible for all International Space Station (ISS) component
processing at KSC and contractor manufacturing locations. Leinbach
also oversaw the development and execution of the Multi-Element
Integrated Test Program, which verified the functionality and
operability of the first phase of the ISS program in a
configuration, on the ground, as close to the on-orbit final
assembly as possible.
Leinbach was tapped to serve as Assistant Launch Director in May
2000 and was named Launch Director in August 2000. He has led the
Launch Team for all Shuttle missions since then, serving as the
person to give the final "go" for launch. He also serves as the
senior operations expert for NASA for all Shuttle flight elements
and ground support equipment processing issues.
Immediately following the Columbia accident in February 2003,
Leinbach lead the initial debris recovery effort in Texas and
Louisiana. Shortly thereafter, he was named to lead the Columbia
Reconstruction Team chartered to determine the cause of the
accident based solely on the debris collected and reassembled at
KSC. He was also the driving force behind the Columbia Preservation
Team and development of the plan to lend debris to academia for
study with the goal of developing better and safer spacecraft in
the future.
Floridatoday.com reports that Leinbach sent an e-mail to
colleagues and friends telling them of the move. "I have been
blessed to be so fortunate in my career, but it’s time to
move on,” Leinbach wrote.
His last day at NASA will be December 1st. He said he would
begin his new job "very shortly," but did not name the company for
which he woud be working.