The Andromeda Strain (Book 1). Michael Crichton. ISBN:9780099319511

Five prominent biophysicists are warning the US government that the current system for sterilizing returning astronauts and equipment does not provide adequate protection against extraterrestrial microorganisms entering Earth. Two years later, as part of Project Scoop, seventeen US military satellites collect samples of "organisms and substances for research." But the satellite left orbit and fell in northern Arizona. Soon after the satellite falls, people begin to die in the city closest to the crash site called Piedmont. The city is littered with their bodies, and the faces of the dead seem frozen in unpredictable fear. But this is just the beginning...