Mass Market Paperback, 286 pages
English language
Published Jan. 14, 1993 by Ballantine Books.
Five prominent biophysicists give the United States government an urgent warning: sterilzation procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.
Two years later, Project Scoop sends seventeen satellites into the fringes of space in order to 'collect organisms and dust for study'.
Then a probe falls to the earth, landing in a desolate area of northeastern Arizona. A little while later, in the nearby town of Piedmont, bodies are discovered heaped and flung across the ground, faces locked in frozen surprise. The terror has begun... --back cover
Content warning Ending revealed
The plot and science is compelling 50+ years later. I found the ending unsatisfying: the organism evolved to be no threat to humans, on its own? Does that make all of their research pointless - the outcome for humanity would have been the same if Project Wildfire didn't exist? But I thoroughly enjoyed the book overall.
