In the year 2002, America's space program is a faded shadow of its former self. Before becoming a permanent display at the Smithsonian, the space shuttle Columbia is scheduled for one final, routine flight. Hijacked on the launch pad by a renegade group of former NASA insiders, Columbia is soon headed for the moon instead of a museum.At the helm of the rogue spacecraft is Jack Medaris, a brilliant, troubled scientist whose covert refitting of the shuttle for a moon mission has been funded by a mysterious, deep-pocketed consortium. Once in space, Medaris learns that there's more to the story than he has been told. Defending the shuttle against a series of attacks, the fate of his mission, and the future of Earth, depends on his ability to decide who he can trust to bring Columbia back safely.