I was going to check how bad this was, when I noted the author who I see as a chicken little always blowing up minor inconsistencies into international conspiracies that will doom the planet within a week and based on little or no actual evidence. I love love the part about how the mysterious craft "most unnerving of all—seemed to track the Columbia and her crew through space. "  Earth to idiot. The shuttle is in orbit --- that is free fall --- in an almost perfect vacuum. A tennis ball would track the craft.