[Forward]

“As the true scope of the conspiracy is gradually uncovered by the principal investigators, ‘Crash’ Murphy and Dr. Mike Anders, they find themselves running for their lives, as lovers, friends and coworkers involved in the investigation perish around them. What happened to the Shuttle? Who is responsible for the disaster and why? Why is the government calling it an accident? Why is someone willing to kill to keep it a secret? And how big is the conspiracy?”

There's a loooong story behind the writing of Burnout. For one thing, it took me somewhere between 10 and 15 years from the conception of the idea, and the book that's now published with Twilight Times.

Why? Simple.

I was too close to it.

Let’s back up a couple decades.

I had just started working in the field when the Challenger disaster occurred. The program I worked at the time of the disaster was to have led to a Shuttle mission, and I would have been a Payload Specialist candidate. Shortly thereafter, the next phase of my project was cancelled, however, due to the grounding of the Shuttle Fleet. I found myself moving over into the payload flight control area, and learned a lot.

Over the course of a couple of decades I worked seven Space Shuttle missions, at least four increments on the International Space Station, and a number of space defense programs. That’s a lot of experience. You get into some interesting conversations from time to time.

Tomorrow The Idea
Stephanie Osborn is a former payload flight controller, a veteran of over twenty years of working in the civilian space program, as well as various military space defense programs. She has worked on numerous Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station, and counts the training of astronauts on her resumé. Of those astronauts she trained, one was Kalpana Chawla, a member of the crew lost in the Columbia disaster.